import win32com.client xlApp = win32com.client.Dispatch("Excel.Application") xlApp.Visible=1 workBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(r"C:\MyTest.xls") print str(workBook.ActiveSheet.Cells(i,1)) workBook.ActiveSheet.Cells(1, 1).Value = "hello" workBook.Close(SaveChanges=0) xlApp.Quit()