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Format

Microsoft Excel 4.0 Worksheet (xls)

Summary

Name
Microsoft Excel 4.0 Worksheet (xls)
Version
4S
Identifiers
  • MIME: application/vnd.ms-excel
  • Apple Uniform Type Identifier: com.microsoft.excel.xls
  • PUID: fmt/57
Format type
Spreadsheet
Disclosure
None
Description
The Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) is a spreadsheet file format developed by Microsoft. BIFF 4S is a native file format of Microsoft Excel 4.0 for Windows. Excel 4.0 allowed either a single worksheet to be stored as a worksheet file (BIFF 4S), or for multiple worksheets to be combined in a single workbook file (BIFF 4W). The format is proprietary and Microsoft does not make details of its structure public. The information contained here is derived primarily from OpenOffice.org's reverse-engineered documentation of the format, and should not therefore be regarded as definitive. BIFF is a stream based format, and a BIFF 4S file comprises a single Worksheet stream, containing a Beginning of File (BOF) record, followed by a series of Worksheet records, and terminated by an End of File (EOF) record.
File extensions
xls
Source
Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives
Developed by
Microsoft Corporation
Supported by
Microsoft Corporation

Relationships

Is previous version of
Is subsequent version of
Is supertype of

Internal signatures

BIFF 4 Worksheet

Note
BIFF4: BOF hex 0904. record length hex 0600, BIFF version=(not used), filetype=worksheet=1000

Byte sequences

Min Frag Length
Absolute from BOF
Offset
0
Max offset
None
Byte Sequence
09040600{2}1000
Endianness
None

Changelog

  • Updated in V69

    Release date
    19 July 2013

    Microsoft Excel Worksheet 4.0: Improved signature, submitted by Georgia Technology Research Institute.