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iXBRL file has become corrupted after opening it in Excel

By default, all html files appear in the Open dialog in Excel. This includes iXBRL files because they are written in html. Hence, apart from being confusing, it is very easy to accidentally open an iXBRL file in Excel. However, if you do it will not be displayed correctly. Even worse, if you save an iXBRL file in Excel, the original file is overwritten by Excel’s own html format and the XBRL tags lost! You are therefore strongly advised not to open an iXBRL file in Excel, even though it appears in the Open dialog.

Instead, an iXBRL file can be opened in your web browser by double clicking on it. An iXBRL file can also be opened in VT Fact Viewer by right clicking on it and choosing Open With VT Fact Viewer from the pop-up menu (or by choosing the Open command from within VT Fact Viewer itself). You will get a warning message from VT Fact Viewer if an iXBRL file has been saved in Excel (and hence corrupted).