diff --git a/doc/source/user_guide/io.rst b/doc/source/user_guide/io.rst
index d4be9d802d697..3a81b060cd73a 100644
--- a/doc/source/user_guide/io.rst
+++ b/doc/source/user_guide/io.rst
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ The pandas I/O API is a set of top level ``reader`` functions accessed like
     text;`JSON <https://www.json.org/>`__;:ref:`read_json<io.json_reader>`;:ref:`to_json<io.json_writer>`
     text;`HTML <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML>`__;:ref:`read_html<io.read_html>`;:ref:`to_html<io.html>`
     text; Local clipboard;:ref:`read_clipboard<io.clipboard>`;:ref:`to_clipboard<io.clipboard>`
-    ;`MS Excel <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel>`__;:ref:`read_excel<io.excel_reader>`;:ref:`to_excel<io.excel_writer>`
+    binary;`MS Excel <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel>`__;:ref:`read_excel<io.excel_reader>`;:ref:`to_excel<io.excel_writer>`
     binary;`OpenDocument <http://www.opendocumentformat.org>`__;:ref:`read_excel<io.ods>`;
     binary;`HDF5 Format <https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/whatishdf5.html>`__;:ref:`read_hdf<io.hdf5>`;:ref:`to_hdf<io.hdf5>`
     binary;`Feather Format <https://github.com/wesm/feather>`__;:ref:`read_feather<io.feather>`;:ref:`to_feather<io.feather>`