{
 "id": "microsoft-excel-2000-2003-workbook-xls-8x",
 "name": "Microsoft Excel 2000-2003 Workbook (xls)",
 "category": "spreadsheet",
 "identifiers": {
  "extensions": [
   "xls",
   "xlw"
  ],
  "puid": [
   "fmt/62"
  ],
  "wikidata": [
   "Q60886323"
  ],
  "uti": [
   "com.microsoft.excel.xls"
  ],
  "priority_over": [
   "fmt/111"
  ]
 },
 "status": "readable",
 "summary": "The Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) is a spreadsheet file format developed by Microsoft. BIFF 8X is a native file format of Microsoft Excel XP. 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 8X 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 2003.",
 "tools": [
  {
   "name": "LibreOffice",
   "url": "https://www.libreoffice.org",
   "license": "MPL-2.0",
   "open_source": true,
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "ABBYY FineReader 11",
   "url": "https://pdf.abbyy.com/",
   "reads": false,
   "writes": true,
   "license": "end-user license agreement"
  },
  {
   "name": "Cytoscape",
   "url": "http://www.cytoscape.org/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU Lesser General Public License",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Foxit Reader 6.1",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113627037",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "IBM Lotus Sametime",
   "url": "https://www.ibm.com/products?q=Sametime",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "MediaRich Server",
   "url": "https://equilibrium.com/mediarichserver/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "Microsoft Excel",
   "url": "https://products.office.com/en-gb/excel",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "end-user license agreement"
  },
  {
   "name": "Microsoft Excel 2000",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120359611",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Microsoft Works 8.0",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123464379",
   "reads": false,
   "writes": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Oracle Spatial",
   "url": "http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database-options/spatialandgraph/overview/index.html",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "Photorecovery",
   "url": "https://lc-tech.com/help/PhotoRecovery/English/index.html",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "Skysite",
   "url": "https://www.skysite.com/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true
  },
  {
   "name": "StoryO",
   "url": "https://junglesoftware.com/storyo/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "WPS Spreadsheet 2013",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q111676971",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true
  }
 ],
 "projects": [
  {
   "name": "PRONOM fmt/62",
   "url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/fmt/62",
   "kind": "format-doc"
  },
  {
   "name": "Wikidata Q60886323",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60886323",
   "kind": "wiki"
  }
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "sources": [
   "converters",
   "pronom",
   "wikidata"
  ]
 },
 "updated": "2026-10-20",
 "version": "8X",
 "aliases": [
  "Microsoft Excel Workbook (XP-2003)",
  "Microsoft Excel Workbook (2002-2003)"
 ],
 "conversions": [
  {
   "to": "opendocument-spreadsheet-file-format-family",
   "tool": "LibreOffice",
   "command": "soffice --headless --convert-to ods in.xls",
   "fidelity": "partial",
   "losses": "Layout may shift; macros and some features are not kept.",
   "url": "https://www.libreoffice.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "microsoft-excel-for-windows-2007-onwards",
   "tool": "LibreOffice",
   "command": "soffice --headless --convert-to xlsx in.xls",
   "fidelity": "partial",
   "losses": "Layout may shift; macros and some features are not kept.",
   "url": "https://www.libreoffice.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "comma-separated-values",
   "tool": "LibreOffice",
   "command": "soffice --headless --convert-to csv in.xls",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "First sheet only, values only: formulas, formatting and other sheets are lost.",
   "url": "https://www.libreoffice.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "pdf",
   "tool": "LibreOffice",
   "command": "soffice --headless --convert-to pdf in.xls",
   "fidelity": "partial",
   "losses": "Fixed layout: the document is no longer editable.",
   "url": "https://www.libreoffice.org"
  }
 ],
 "structure": [],
 "parsers": [],
 "samples": [],
 "claims": [],
 "verification": [],
 "family": "xls"
}