# Change the MIME type of Your Visualforce Page

You can specify a different format for a Visualforce page by using the `contentType` attribute on the `<apex:page>` tag. This sets the HTTP`Content-Type` header for the response to the value of the page’s `contentType` attribute.

The `contentType` attribute takes a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) type as a value, such as `application/vnd.ms-excel`, `text/csv`, or `image/gif`.

:::note
Browsers can behave unpredictably if you set an invalid `contentType`. For information about valid MIME types, see <http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/>.

The `contentType` attribute accepts any MIME type as a valid value. However, Visualforce supports content conversion of only PDFs, which you can do by specifying a [`renderAs`](/docs/platform/salesforce-pages-developers-guide/guide/pages-output-pdf-renderas.md) attribute.

Visualforce doesn’t generate other file formats. It only sets the `Content-Type` field of the HTTP response header to the specified MIME type. Some file formats, such as .xlsx, can fail to render.
:::

- For example, to display Visualforce page data in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, use the `contentType` attribute on the `<apex:page>` tag. Specify a value of `application/vnd.ms-excel`.

  This Visualforce page builds a list of cases by using static HTML and the `<apex:repeat>` component.

  ```markup

  <!-- This page must be accessed with an Account Id in the URL. For example: 
  https://MyDomainName--c.vf.force.com/apex/myPage?id=001D000000JRBet -->

  <apex:page standardController="Account" contentType="application/vnd.ms-excel">
      <table border="0" >
          <caption>Cases</caption>
          <tr>
              <th>Case Number</th>
              <th>Origin</th>
              <th>Creator Email</th>
              <th>Status</th>
          </tr>
          <apex:repeat var="cases" value="{!Account.Cases}">
              <tr>
                  <td>{!cases.CaseNumber}</td>
                  <td>{!cases.Origin}</td>
                  <td>{!cases.Contact.email}</td>
                  <td>{!cases.Status}</td>
              </tr>
          </apex:repeat>
      </table>
  </apex:page>
  ```

  :::tip
  If the page doesn’t display properly in Excel, try a different MIME type, such as `text/csv`.
  :::