convert an excel file to pipe delimiter file in Linux using script

Need to convert an excel file to pipe delimiter file in Linux using shell script. pls help I'm new to shell script. I saw a post to convert comma to pipe using the below code... awk '{for(i=1; i<=NF; i+=2) gsub(",","|",$i)}1' FS=\" OFS= file how to change this command for excel file to pipe?