{
 "id": "microsoft-excel-97-2003-workbook-xls-8-8x",
 "name": "Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Workbook (xls)",
 "category": "spreadsheet",
 "identifiers": {
  "extensions": [
   "xls",
   "xlw"
  ],
  "puid": [
   "fmt/61"
  ],
  "wikidata": [
   "Q60886160"
  ],
  "mime": [
   "application/vnd.ms-excel"
  ],
  "uti": [
   "com.microsoft.excel.xls"
  ],
  "priority_over": [
   "fmt/59",
   "fmt/111"
  ]
 },
 "status": "unknown",
 "summary": "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.",
 "tools": [
  {
   "name": "FrontPage Editor",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q118235377",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "MediaRich Server",
   "url": "https://equilibrium.com/mediarichserver/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "Microsoft Access 2000",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120598149",
   "reads": false,
   "writes": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Microsoft Excel",
   "url": "https://products.office.com/en-gb/excel",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "end-user license agreement"
  },
  {
   "name": "Microsoft Office Excel 2007",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10329635",
   "reads": false,
   "writes": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Microsoft Works 8.0",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123464379",
   "reads": false,
   "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/61",
   "url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/fmt/61",
   "kind": "format-doc"
  },
  {
   "name": "Wikidata Q60886160",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60886160",
   "kind": "wiki"
  }
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "sources": [
   "pronom",
   "wikidata"
  ]
 },
 "updated": "2026-10-20",
 "version": "8 & 8X",
 "aliases": [
  "Microsoft Excel Workbook (97-2000)"
 ],
 "structure": [],
 "parsers": [],
 "conversions": [],
 "samples": [],
 "claims": [],
 "verification": [],
 "family": "xls"
}