File Format Versions

This article documents the file formats shown in the following table:

BIFF version

Microsoft Excel version

BIFF5

Microsoft Excel version 5

BIFF7

Microsoft Excel 95 (also called Microsoft Excel version 7)

BIFF8

Microsoft Excel 97


You can determine the BIFF version from the BOF record. In BIFF4 and earlier, some records (other than the BOF record) contained version information in the high-order byte of their record numbers. This proved to be redundant, so for BIFF5 and later, Microsoft Excel determines the BIFF version by reading the BOF record.

The record descriptions in this document apply to all three of the BIFF versions in the preceding table. If records are different for different BIFF versions, this is shown in the record descriptions.

The following tables describe the new records and changed records in BIFF8. For more information on the new and changed records, see the appropriate record description.

New Records in BIFF8

Number

Record

1B1h

CF

1BAh

CODENAME

1B0h

CONDFMT

1B5h

DCONBIN

161h

DSF

1BEh

DV

1B2h

DVAL

FFh

EXTSST

1B8h

HLINK

FDh

LABELSST

ECh

MSODRAWING

EBh

MSODRAWINGGROUP

EDh

MSODRAWINGSELECTION

DCh

PARAMQRY

1Afh

PROT4REV

1BCh

PROT4REVPASS

1ADh

QSI

1B7h

REFRESHALL

FCh

SST

1AEh

SUPBOOK

C6h

SXDB

122h

SXDBEX

F1h

SXEX

1BBh

SXFDBTYPE

F2h

SXFILT

F9h

SXFMLA

FBh

SXFORMAT

103h

SXFORMULA

F6h

SXNAME

F8h

SXPAIR

F0h

SXRULE

F7h

SXSELECT

100h

SXVDEX

1B6h

TXO

1A9h

USERBVIEW

1AAh

USERSVIEWBEGIN

1ABh

USERSVIEWEND

160h

USESELFS

162h

XL5MODIFY


Changed Records in BIFF8

Number

Record

09h

BOF

85h

BOUNDSHEET

200h

DIMENSIONS

0Bh

INDEX

1Ch

NOTE

5Dh

OBJ

DCh

SXEXT

1Ah

VERTICALPAGEBREAKS

23Eh

WINDOW2

5Ch

WRITEACCESS

59h

XCT

E0h

XF


The User Names and Revision Log streams support the shared list feature that was added in Microsoft Excel 95. The BIFF record data in shared list records (records that begin with RR), and the binary format of the User Names and Revision Log streams are not documented.

The DocumentSummaryInformation and SummaryInformation streams support the document properties available in Microsoft Excel 95 and 97, which are standardized across the Office family of applications.