The Microsoft Excel File Format - OpenOffice.org

4.6 Cell Formatting
4.6 Cell Formatting
All cell formatting attributes are stored in XF records (➜5.115). The cell records themselves contain an index into the
XF record list. This way of storing cell formatting saves memory and decreases the file size.
4.6.1 Cell Formatting and Cell Styles
The XF record is able to store explicit cell formatting attributes or the attributes of a cell style (BIFF3-BIFF8). Explicit
formatting includes the reference to a cell style XF record. This allows to extend a defined cell style with some explicit
attributes.
The formatting attributes are divided into 6 groups:
Group
Number format
Font
Alignment
Border
Background
Protection
Attributes
Number format index (index to FORMAT record)
Font index (index to FONT record)
Horizontal and vertical alignment, text wrap, indentation, orientation/rotation, text direction
Border line styles and colours
Background area style and colours
Cell locked, formula hidden
For each group a flag in the cell XF record specifies whether to use the attributes contained in that XF record or in the
referenced style XF record. In style XF records, these flags specify whether the attributes will overwrite explicit cell
formatting when the style is applied to a cell. Changing a cell style (without applying this style to a cell) will change all
cells which already use that style and do not contain explicit cell attributes for the changed style attributes. If a cell XF
record does not contain explicit attributes in a group (if the attribute group flag is not set), it repeats the attributes of its
style XF record.
4.6.2 Default Formatting
Default formatting is applied to all cells which are not described by a cell record. In this case the default format of the
row or column may be used (if defined). If an undefined cell contains a row and a column default format, the row format
will overwrite the column format. If there are no row and column default formats available, the worksheet/workbook
default cell format will be used.
4
5
6
7
1
2
3
row
worksheet
A B C D
column
Default column formatting is stored in the COLUMNDEFAULT record (BIFF2, ➜5.19) or in the COLINFO record
(BIFF3-BIFF8, ➜5.18). The ROW record (➜5.88) contains the default format of a specific row. The default cell format
is always present in an Excel file, described by the XF record with the fixed index 15 (0-based). By default, it uses the
worksheet/workbook default cell style, described by the very first XF record (index 0).
cell
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