use strict;
use Win32::OLE;

my $ole = Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application', 'Quit') or die "$!";
$ole->{Visible} = 1;
my $xls = $ole->{Workbooks}->Open('mr.xls');
my $sheet = $xls->{Sheets}->{Template};
print $sheet->{UsedRange}->{Rows}->{Count}, " rows, ", 
	  $sheet->{UsedRange}->{Columns}->{Count}, " columns used.";

__END__
Output:
C:\>perl xls.pl
40 rows, 11 columns used.