Resource created on 2008-02-15 (see Microsoft releases Office binary formats). Lists both official and third party sources for Microsoft Office file formats.
Contact the listed sources for more information. Contact me to report additional or broken links.
The XML-based Office Open XML (OOXML) file formats are ECMA specification 376.
All the resources below are for the binary Office file formats.
Microsoft released documentation for the core Office file formats on 2008 Feb 15, under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise.
These are the binary file formats for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Office Draw - for Office 97 and later.
Microsoft published additional documentation on 2008 Jun 30. This includes the protocols used in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, and new documentation for the Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint binary formats (.doc, .xls, .xlsb and .ppt).
The Personal Storage Table (PST) format is used by several Office tools, and known by several different extensions, including OST (Offline Storage Table) and PAB (Personal Address Book).
Documentation for Microsoft’s compound file format is in the OLE2 SDK, part of the Windows SDK. Microsoft does not provide a single document consolidating the relevant parts. OpenOffice has created a single document describing it.
No third-party documentation known.
Unlike Microsoft’s documentation, the OpenOffice documentation covers all versions of Excel.
No documentation known for PhotoDraw MIX file format.
No documentation known for FrontPage project files and templates.
No third-party documentation known.
No third-party documentation known.
Microsoft KnowledgeBase
article 87233: FFAPI: Understanding Microsoft Mail File Formats (2006-10-30)
states that "A complete description of all file formats is in the "Microsoft
Mail Software Development Kit File Format API for Gateways and Applications"
manual", but does not state where or how to obtain that manual. Article 118785
references the same manual, again without stating where or how to obtain it.
The manual is probably a part of the Microsoft Mail for PC Networks Software
Development Kit mentioned in the later but where or how to obtain that is not
documented either.
According to KB article 9329: PC
DB: Mail Message (.MAI) File Format, "The mail message (.MAI) file format in
Microsoft Mail versions 2.1 and 3.0 is based on the Federal Information
Processing Systems (FIPS) message format described in FIPS PUB 98. This format
is a subset of the CCITT X.400 standard for interpersonal messaging.".
FIPS PUB 98 is readily available as RFC 841: FIPS PUB 98: Specification for Message Format for Computer Based Message Systems.
No documentation known for Schedule+ file format.
No documentation known for Entourage file format.
No third-party documentation known.
No third-party documentation known.
Outlook Express is mentioned here, although it not a part of Office, but part of several versions of Windows and Internet Explorer. If I were to leave it out, I would be questioned about it. If I included it without this note, I would get lots of mails telling me it is not part of Office....
Microsoft open source PST tools added.
Ian Redfern's site, including the pages with MS Visio file format information, are gone. The broken link has been removed.
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