I am unfamiliar with XML except to the extent that I can read XML files into MS Excel and then output them as XLS files which I can then read into Mathematica using the usual Import command. Done this way I get nice tables of all the tabs of the file in an easy to use list format.

However, I would like to access these files (that are made available several times a day) automatically through Mathematica.

When trying to Import the XML format I get objects and elements that suggest a standard Excel.Sheet template that Mathematica doesn't automatically recognize. The Short version of the file is given below:

XMLObject[ "Document"][{XMLObject["Declaration"]["Version" -> "1.0", 
   "Encoding" -> "UTF-8"], 
  XMLObject["ProcessingInstruction"]["mso-application", 
   "progid=\"Excel.Sheet\""]}, 
 XMLElement[
  "Workbook", {OutputSizeLimit`Skeleton[
   1]}, {XMLElement[
    "Worksheet", {{"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet", 
       "Name"} -> "ALL_BIDS"}, {XMLElement[
      "Table", {}, {OutputSizeLimit`Skeleton[1]}]}], 
   OutputSizeLimit`Skeleton[6], 
   XMLElement[
    "Worksheet", {OutputSizeLimit`Skeleton[
     1]}, {XMLElement["Table", {}, {OutputSizeLimit`Skeleton[1]}]}]}],
  {}

Can anyone suggest a simple way to automatically read this file into Mathematica? I suppose I could create some AppleScript (I'm on OS X - Yosemite and use Mathematica 10.) that Mathematica could call and that would in tern call Excel and direct it to do the conversion, but i would prefer to learn how to manipulate XML code in Mathematica.

Many thanks in advance for your suggestions, Steve