The following table lists notation conventions used to describe elements of RIFF files. Further conventions are presented in the following sections.
| Notation | Description |
| <element label> | RIFF file element with the label “element label” |
| <element label: TYPE> | RIFF file element with data type “TYPE” |
| [<element label>] | Optional RIFF file element |
| <element label>... | One or more copies of the specified element |
| [<element label>]... | Zero or more copies of the specified element |