Hi, Bob
In Excel, file/save as type csv
In xBase create a database with appropriate layout for the columns in Excel, and then import from <filename>.csv delimited.
This will work unless the Excel spreadsheet is not organized in columns and as long as it doesn't have any multi-line text cells. It is best to define all fields in the db as character and then do any numeric/date conversions afterwards.
In general saving as type .dbf out of Excel dnw's, but going via CSV works most of the time.
Jock