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# References

Some of our original research is documented at <https://oss.sheetjs.com/notes/>

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.

<details><summary><b>Specifications</b> (click to show)</summary>

 - `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

</details>


## Other Resources

- ISBN 1556155212 "Excel Software Development Kit Version 4"
- ISBN 1556156324 "Excel Developer's Kit Version 5"