Save variable as .asc file to spefic directory

Hi everyone, im new to Matlab but I have been locking around for the solution for quite some time and I cant get this right. I want to save 'var1' as .asc or .xls in a spefic directory. This is my code;

[filename,pathname] = uiputfile({'*.asc';'*.xls'},'Save as');

file = fullfile(pathname, filename);

save(file,'var1')

The file is created properly but the string in this file says some thing like: 'MATLAB 5.0 MAT-file, Platform: PCWIN64, Created on: Tue Jun 03 10:39:13 2014' Thank you for your help

[Christian]

I just found out myself. If anyone cares, it needs to be specified as ascii file to display the variable as string so it is

[filename,pathname] = uiputfile({'*.asc';'*.xls'},'Save as');

file = fullfile(pathname, filename);

save(file,'var1' ,'-ascii' )