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The open-source xls.js library is built for the BIFF-based XLS format, and the XML-based Excel 2003-2004 format. Note that this is not the Open XML formats seen in Excel 2007-2013. So what exactly are these? Does it mean that all/some .xls Excel 2003 files are XML-based? Or does this apply to some other type of Excel document? (templates, macros, scripts)
The wikipedia entry further states that there is loss of fidelity when using such XML formats for spreadsheet storage, which was corrected in the 2007 formats, so is there a prompt asking the user to confirm if he would like to use XML or binary? Or are all documents created in Excel 2003 automatically XML? And for such XML documents is the extension .xml?
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Excel has a defined XML schema that defines the contents of an Excel workbook, including XML tags that store all workbook information, such as data and properties, and define the overall structure of the workbook. Custom applications can use this Excel macro-enabled Office XML Format File.
XLSX was originally developed by Microsoft as an XML-based format to replace the earlier proprietary binary format that uses the . xls file extension [MS-XLS]. Since Excel 2007, XLSX has been the default format for the Save operation.
What is XML? The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple text-based format for representing structured information: documents, data, configuration, books, transactions, invoices, and much more. It was derived from an older standard format called SGML (ISO 8879), in order to be more suitable for Web use.
The main difference between XML and XLS is what they actually are. While XLS is a file format, as already mentioned, XML is actually a markup language that is prominently used in web pages.
Office 2003 was the first version supporting some kind of rudimentary XML format, now superseded with the new Office 2007+ format.
Excel 2003 would open/save spreadsheets in XML format. Those files are still using the XLS extension.
Refer to this blog for some more details
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