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# References
Some of our original research is documented at
The specifications list is non-exhaustive.
- Worksheet File Format (From Lotus) December 1984
- Open Document Format for Office Applications Version 1.2 (29 September 2011)
- ISO/IEC 29500:2012(E) "Information technology — Document description and processing languages — Office Open XML File Formats"
## Open Specifications Promise
Lotus released their "Worksheet File Format" documentation into the Public
Domain. Microsoft opted for the "Open Specifications Promise", a covenant not
to sue. The documentation that falls under the promise are listed below.
Specifications (click to show)
- `MS-CFB`: Compound File Binary File Format
- `MS-CTXLS`: Excel Custom Toolbar Binary File Format
- `MS-EXSPXML3`: Excel Calculation Version 2 Web Service XML Schema
- `MS-ODATA`: Open Data Protocol (OData)
- `MS-ODRAW`: Office Drawing Binary File Format
- `MS-ODRAWXML`: Office Drawing Extensions to Office Open XML Structure
- `MS-OE376`: Office Implementation Information for ECMA-376 Standards Support
- `MS-OFFCRYPTO`: Office Document Cryptography Structure
- `MS-OI29500`: Office Implementation Information for ISO/IEC 29500 Standards Support
- `MS-OLEDS`: Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Data Structures
- `MS-OLEPS`: Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Property Set Data Structures
- `MS-OODF3`: Office Implementation Information for ODF 1.2 Standards Support
- `MS-OSHARED`: Office Common Data Types and Objects Structures
- `MS-OVBA`: Office VBA File Format Structure
- `MS-XLDM`: Spreadsheet Data Model File Format
- `MS-XLS`: Excel Binary File Format (.xls) Structure Specification
- `MS-XLSB`: Excel (.xlsb) Binary File Format
- `MS-XLSX`: Excel (.xlsx) Extensions to the Office Open XML SpreadsheetML File Format
- `XLS`: Microsoft Office Excel 97-2007 Binary File Format Specification
- `RTF`: Rich Text Format
## Other Resources
- ISBN 1556155212 "Excel Software Development Kit Version 4"
- ISBN 1556156324 "Excel Developer's Kit Version 5"