User:Matthewrb/sandbox/List of Microsoft Office filename extensions

The following is a list of filename extensions used by programs included in Microsoft 365, formerly known as the Microsoft Office suite.

The Office Open XML (OOXML) format was introduced with Microsoft Office 2007 and became the default format of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel ever since.

<>Legacy filename extensions denote binary Microsoft Word formatting that became outdated with the release of Microsoft Office 2007. Although the latest version of Microsoft Word can still open them, they are no longer developed.

Word

Microsoft Word is a word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including: IBM PCs running DOS (1983), Apple Macintosh running the Classic Mac OS (1985), AT&T UNIX PC (1985), Atari ST (1988), OS/2 (1989), Microsoft Windows (1989), SCO Unix (1990), Handheld PC (1996), Pocket PC (2000), macOS (2001), Web browsers (2010), iOS (2014), and Android (2015).

Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard word processing software since the 1990s when it eclipsed WordPerfect. Commercial versions of Word are licensed as a standalone product or as a component of Microsoft Office, which can be purchased with a perpetual license, or as part of the Microsoft 365 suite as a subscription. (Full article...)

OOXML Extensions

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File Extension	Icon	Description	Notes
.docx		Word Document	The default format
.docm	File:.docm icon.svg	Word macro-enabled document	Same as docx, but may contain macros and scripts
.dotx		Word template
.dotm	File:.dotm icon.svg	Word macro-enabled template	Same as dotx, but may contain macros and scripts
.docb	File:.docb icon.svg	Word binary document	Introduced in Microsoft Office 2007

Legacy Extensions

File Extension	Icon	Description	Notes
.doc		Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document	Legacy default file format
.dot	File:.dot icon.svg	Microsoft Word 97-2003 Template
.wbk	File:.wbk icon.svg	Microsoft Word Backup Document

Other Formats

File Extension	Icon	Description
.pdf		PDF document
.wll	File:.wll icon.svg	Word add-in
.wwl	File:.wwl icon.svg	Word add-in

Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and iPadOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Excel forms part of the Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Office suites of software and has been developed since 1985. (Full article...)

Legacy: Legacy filename extensions denote binary Microsoft Excel formats that became outdated with the release of Microsoft Office 2007. Although the latest version of Microsoft Excel can still open them, they are no longer developed. Legacy filename extensions include:

.xls – Legacy Excel worksheets; officially designated "Microsoft Excel 97–2003 Worksheet" or "Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook"
.xlt – Legacy Excel templates; officially designated "Microsoft Excel 97–2003 Template"
.xlm – Legacy Excel macro

OOXML: Office Open XML (OOXML) format was introduced with Microsoft Office 2007 and became the default format of Microsoft Excel ever since. Excel-related file extensions of this format include:

.xlsx – Excel workbook
.xlsm – Excel macro-enabled workbook; same as xlsx but may contain macros and scripts
.xltx – Excel template
.xltm – Excel macro-enabled template; same as xltx but may contain macros and scripts

Other formats: Microsoft Excel uses dedicated file formats that are not part of OOXML, and use the following extensions:

.xlsb – Excel binary worksheet (BIFF12)
.xla – Excel add-in that can contain macros
.xlam – Excel macro-enabled add-in
.xll – Excel XLL add-in; a form of DLL-based add-in^[1]
.xlw – Excel work space; previously known as "workbook"
.xll_ – Excel 4 for Mac add-in
.xla_ - Excel 4 for Mac add-in
.xla5 – Excel 5 for Mac add-in
.xla8 – Excel 98 for Mac add-in

PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins, Tom Rudkin, and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoint for about $14 million three months after it appeared. This was Microsoft's first significant acquisition, and Microsoft set up a new business unit for PowerPoint in Silicon Valley where Forethought had been located.

PowerPoint became a component of the Microsoft Office suite, first offered in 1989 for Macintosh and in 1990 for Windows, which bundled several Microsoft apps. Beginning with PowerPoint 4.0 (1994), PowerPoint was integrated into Microsoft Office development, and adopted shared common components and a converged user interface.

PowerPoint's market share was very small at first, prior to introducing a version for Microsoft Windows, but grew rapidly with the growth of Windows and of Office. Since the late 1990s, PowerPoint's worldwide market share of presentation software has been estimated at 95 percent.

PowerPoint was originally designed to provide visuals for group presentations within business organizations, but has come to be widely used in other communication situations in business and beyond. The wider use led to the development of the PowerPoint presentation as a new form of communication, with strong reactions including advice that it should be used less, differently, or better.

The first PowerPoint version (Macintosh 1987) was used to produce overhead transparencies, the second (Macintosh 1988, Windows 1990) could also produce color 35 mm slides. The third version (Windows and Macintosh 1992) introduced video output of virtual slideshows to digital projectors, which would over time replace physical transparencies and slides. A dozen major versions since then have added additional features and modes of operation and have made PowerPoint available beyond Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, adding versions for iOS, Android, and web access. (Full article...) Legacy

.ppt – Legacy PowerPoint presentation
.pot – Legacy PowerPoint template
.pps – Legacy PowerPoint slideshow
.ppa – Legacy PowerPoint add-in

OOXML

.pptx – PowerPoint presentation
.pptm – PowerPoint macro-enabled presentation
.potx – PowerPoint template
.potm – PowerPoint macro-enabled template
.ppam – PowerPoint add-in
.ppsx – PowerPoint slideshow
.ppsm – PowerPoint macro-enabled slideshow
.sldx – PowerPoint slide
.sldm – PowerPoint macro-enabled slide
.ppam – PowerPoint add-in

Access

Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational Access Database Engine (ACE) with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft 365 suite of applications, included in the Professional and higher editions or sold separately.

Microsoft Access stores data in its own format based on the Access Database Engine (formerly Jet Database Engine). It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases.

Software developers, data architects and power users can use Microsoft Access to develop application software. Like other Microsoft Office applications, Access is supported by Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), an object-based programming language that can reference a variety of objects including the legacy DAO (Data Access Objects), ActiveX Data Objects, and many other ActiveX components. Visual objects used in forms and reports expose their methods and properties in the VBA programming environment, and VBA code modules may declare and call Windows operating system operations. (Full article...)

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Microsoft Access 2007 introduced new file extensions:

.accda – Access add-in file
.accdb – Access Database
.accde – The file extension for Office Access 2007 files that are in "execute only" mode. ACCDE files have all Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) source code hidden. A user of an ACCDE file can only execute VBA code, but not view or modify it. ACCDE takes the place of the MDE file extension.
.accdr – is a new file extension that enables you to open a database in runtime mode. By simply changing a database's file extension from .accdb to .accdr, you can create a "locked-down" version of your Office Access database. You can change the file extension back to .accdb to restore full functionality.
.accdt – The file extension for Access Database Templates.
.accdu – Access add-in file

OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking software developed by Microsoft. It is available as part of the Microsoft 365 suite and since 2014 has been free on all platforms outside the suite. OneNote is designed for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It gathers users' notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries. Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network.

OneNote is also available as a free, stand-alone app via the official website and the app stores of: Windows 10/11, MacOS, iOS, iPadOS and Android. Microsoft also provides a web-based version of OneNote as part of OneDrive and Office for the web. (Full article...)

.one – OneNote export file

Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Primarily popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as calendaring, task managing, contact managing, note-taking, journal logging, web browsing, and RSS news aggregation.

Individuals can use Outlook as a stand-alone application; organizations can deploy it as multi-user software (through Microsoft Exchange Server or SharePoint) for shared functions such as mailboxes, calendars, folders, data aggregation (i.e., SharePoint lists), and as appointment scheduling apps.

Other than the paid software on Windows and Mac desktops that this article talks about, the Outlook name also covers several other current software:

Outlook on the web, formerly Outlook Web App, a web version of Microsoft Outlook, included in Microsoft 365, Exchange Server, and Exchange Online (domain outlook.office365.com)
Outlook for Windows, a new, free Outlook application that is preloaded with Windows 11 from 2024
Outlook Mobile, a mobile app version of Outlook
Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail, a free personal email service offered by Microsoft alongside a webmail client (domain outlook.live.com) (Full article...)
.ecf – Outlook 2013+ add-in file

Publisher

Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application from Microsoft, differing from Microsoft Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and graphic design rather than text composition and proofreading. It is planned for discontinuation in October 2026. (Full article...)

.pub – a Microsoft Publisher publication

Project

Microsoft Project is a project management software product, developed and sold by Microsoft. It is designed to assist a project manager in developing a schedule, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workloads.

Microsoft Project was the company's third Microsoft Windows-based application. Within a few years after its launch, it became the dominant PC-based project management software. From 2015 to 2020 it was the most popular application for project management according to Project Management Zone.

It is part of the Microsoft 365 family but has never been included in any of the suites of Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365. It is available currently as a cloud-based solution with three price levels (Plan 1, Plan 3, or Plan 5): or as a on-premises solution with three editions (Standard, Professional, and Server). Microsoft Project's proprietary file format is .mpp.

Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server are the cornerstones of the Microsoft Office enterprise project management (EPM) product. (Full article...)

Visio

Microsoft Visio (/ˈvɪz.i.oʊ/, VIZ-ee-oh), formerly Microsoft Office Visio, is a diagramming and vector graphics application and is part of the Microsoft 365 family. The product was first introduced in 1992 by former American software company Visio Corporation, and its latest version is Visio 2021. Microsoft acquired the assets of Visio Corporation in 2000. A lightweight version of Visio is now included with all commercial SKU of Microsoft 365 and is known as Visio in Microsoft 365. It has two other subscription based SKUs. Visio Plan 1 includes the Visio web app whereas Visio Plan 2 provides access to both the web app and the Desktop application. (Full article...)

References

^ "Excel 2007 XLL Software Development Kit Documentation". MSDN. Microsoft. Retrieved 4 June 2013.

External links

Microsoft Office filename extensions File extensions Category:Office Open XML *

[1] "Excel 2007 XLL Software Development Kit Documentation". MSDN. Microsoft. Retrieved 4 June 2013.

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