Spreadsheet data import to RPG

[ElevenToes]

I am writing an RPG game that has tones of
data stored in excel files.
armor
weapons
spells
I dont want to re-enter all of the data.
What I have been doing is opening the spread
sheet as an object and sorting through it that way.
This seems very very slow.

Does anyone have suggestions on what would be faster
easier etc. Keeping excel would be nice because
I can read characters into and out of the game simply.

Thanks