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Format

Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (xls)

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Summary

Name
Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (xls)
Version
5/95
Identifiers
  • MIME: application/vnd.ms-excel
  • Apple Uniform Type Identifier: com.microsoft.excel.xls
  • PUID: fmt/59
Format type
Spreadsheet
Disclosure
None
Description
The Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) is a spreadsheet file format developed by Microsoft. BIFF 5 is a native file format of Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Windows. The format is proprietary and Microsoft does not make details of its structure public. The information here is derived primarily from OpenOffice.org's reverse-engineered documentation of the format and should not therefore be regarded as definitive. From Excel 5.0 onwards, BIFF is based on Microsoft’s generic OLE2 Compound Document Format. An Excel workbook is stored as a ‘Book’ stream within a Compound Document Format file. The Book stream comprises a Workbook Globals Substream, containing a Beginning of File (BOF) record, the Workbook global records, and terminated by an End of File (EOF) record. This is followed by one or more Worksheet substreams, containing a Beginning of File (BOF) record, the worksheet records, and terminated by an End of File (EOF) record.
File extensions
xlw, xls
Source
Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives
Developed by
Microsoft Corporation
Supported by
Microsoft Corporation

Relationships

Has lower priority than
Has priority over
Is subsequent version of
Is subtype of

Container signatures

Type: OLE2

2000 - Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 OLE2

File path
Book

Byte sequence reference

BOFoffset

Sub sequences
Min Frag Length
Position
1
Sub sequence min offset
0
Sub sequence max offset
0
Sequence
09 08
Min Frag Length
Position
2
Sub sequence min offset
0
Sub sequence max offset
4
Sequence
00 05 05 00

Changelog

  • Updated in V88

    Release date
    27 September 2016

    Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (xls): Removed binary signature at request of National Library of New Zealand due to wide byte range of signature causing identification clashes with unrelated formats. PUID will now identify by Container Signature only.

  • Updated in V66

    Release date
    18 December 2012

    Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (xls): Renamed from Microsoft Excel 5.0 (xls). Combined to remove multiple identification conflict identified by Ross Spencer. Improved binary and container signatures.