What is SpreadsheetML ?
SpreadsheetML is a new format used by Microsoft® Excel® 2007 to represent a spreadsheet with an XML-based file and covers almost every spreadsheet customization like formulas, data, and formatting. This format is part of the OpenXML specification, which also includes formats for wordprocessing and presentation.
The Spreadsheet Markup Language defines a format with a well defined structure. A workbook contains a collection of one or more worksheets. A worksheet is represented as a grid of cells. It can contain text, numbers, dates, formulas, or a single chart. The individual cells within a worksheet can be formatted and the sheet data can include values or a formula.
The standard is so comprehensive it goes as far as defining calculation chain, pivot tables, query tables, external connection, styles, themes and revisions, making it easy to work with existing Excel documents that already contain these features.
Currently, Excel files that are saved in the SpreadsheetML format carry the extensions xlsx and xlsm (macro enabled). These files are based on the open packaging convention, which means they can be unzipped into a tree structure with folders and subfolders containing the resources of the document (like images and vector files), relationships and xml files describing the formatting and the actual data.
Why is SpreadsheetML Important ?
SpreadsheetML is part of the OpenXML format that is ratified by ECMA as a standard.
Current binary formats have the disadvantage of not being easily processed by third party applications. SpreadsheetML files do not have this problem because the underlying files are text based XML files.
An organization with knowledge of Spreadsheet Markup Language can process a file directly to extract, process or modify the data in the file without going through an an office software. The wide availability of XML parsers also help simplify the job of SpreadsheetML processing.
Being a text file, the data will not be lost when the original application that creates them are no longer supported. Also, being XML files, the format can be extended in the future or customized for special needs with the addition of new tags.
With so many enterprises using Excel as their main spreadsheet software currently, it makes sense to adopt SpreadsheetML as the new spreadsheeet format as it naturally expresses the existing functionalities of Excel, while offering the added benefits of preservation, interoperability, and extensibilty.
SpreadsheetML.com
If you are interested in more infomation on the SpreadsheetML format, please visit our Articles page, which contains several links to this format and its specifications.
This site also hosts an open source Add-In for Excel project, known as TinyGraphs, that generate sparklines or tiny graphs as small as a cell and presents an elegant way for visualizing massive amount of data such as stock and exchange rate movements.
Add-ins and Templates for Excel- New!
The site has been expanded recently to include add-ins for Excel that can be used to help improve your productivity in Excel.
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