Xls2txt

This utility prints Excel spreadsheet (XLS, XLW) as a plain text in tab separated form. It is designed for Linux, possibly works on BSD.

xls2txt [-C charset] -l sheet.xls
xls2txt [-C charset] [-n sheetnum|-A] [-f] sheet.xls [X:X]

X:X	cell range (eg. A1:C5, D2:E)
-l	list sheets
-n num	select sheet (zero-based; 0 is default)
-A	all sheets (\f separated)
-C cs	output charset (utf8 asc iso1 iso2), utf8 is default
-f	don't try to format numbers
-a	ascii output (same as -C asc)

Download: xls2txt-0.12.tar.gz

See also: antiword - a free MS Word reader