Useful Tips & Tricks to Repair Excel File Method #1: Open and Repair. One of the easiest and quickest ways to fix corruption from XLSX file is Open and Repair. Itâs a manual repair trick in Microsoft Excel program to repair Excel file and make it accessible. Follow these simple steps: Step 1: Launch Microsoft Excel on your system. Step 2: Click the File tab > Open. Or press Ctrl+O. Step 3: Locate the corrupt Excel file and select it. Click the drop-down arrow shown beside the Open button.