Format
Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Workbook (xls)
Summary
- Name
- Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Workbook (xls)
- Version
- 8 & 8X
- Identifiers
-
- MIME: application/vnd.ms-excel
- Apple Uniform Type Identifier: com.microsoft.excel.xls
- PUID: fmt/61
- Format type
- Spreadsheet
- Disclosure
- None
- Description
- The Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) is a spreadsheet file format developed by Microsoft. BIFF 8 is a native file format of Microsoft Excel 97. 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. BIFF 8 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. The format remained unchanged with the release of Excel 2000.
- File extensions
-
xls,xlw - Source
- Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives
Relationships
- Has lower priority than
- Has priority over
- Is previous version of
- Is subsequent version of
- Is subtype of
Container signatures
Type: OLE2
2010 - Microsoft Excel 97 OLE2
- File path
- Workbook
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 06 05 00
Type: OLE2
2020 - Microsoft Excel 97 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 06 05 00
Changelog
-
Updated in V122
- Release date
- 19 January 2026
Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Workbook (xls) 8 & 8X: Date range in name updated from 97 to 97-2003, version number updated to include 8X, binary signature removed and description updated accordingly. Submitted by Preservica.
-
Updated in V66
- Release date
- 18 December 2012
Microsoft Excel 97 Workbook (xls): Improved binary and container signatures.
-
Updated in V60
- Release date
- 11 June 2012
Excel 97 Workbook: Container signature statement added to record notes.