Microsoft Office Protocols

The Microsoft Office protocol documentation provides detailed technical specifications for Microsoft proprietary protocols (including extensions to industry-standard or other published protocols) that are used by Microsoft Office to communicate with other Microsoft products.

The documentation is designed to describe each protocol in detail as it is used by Microsoft Office. Each protocol specification documents the technical requirements, limitations, dependencies, and Microsoft-specific protocol behavior.

The documentation also includes a set of companion overview and reference documents that supplement the technical specifications with conceptual background, overviews of inter-protocol relationships and interactions, and technical reference information.

The documentation set contains:

Overview documents
Protocol documents for Microsoft Office
Reference documents

In addition to being available on this Web site, the Office protocol documentation is also available as a download package in .zip file format:

Microsoft Office Protocol Documentation

Note that inter-document links are functional only if all PDF files are located in the same directory. An error message appears if you click a link to a PDF document that is in a different folder (when viewing on your computer) or part of a different download (when viewing online).

In This Section

Microsoft Office Protocols Overview

Microsoft Office Protocols Glossary

Microsoft Office Protocol Documents

Microsoft Office Protocols Reference

Related Sections

Windows Protocols

Microsoft Office File Formats

SharePoint Products and Technologies Protocols

Exchange Server Protocols

Microsoft SQL Server Protocols

Microsoft SQL Server Data Portability

Computer Languages

Standards

Microsoft Interoperability

Microsoft Protocol Programs

Additional Resources

Open Specifications Forum Group	Participate in the top-level forum group.
Using the Open Specifications	Ask questions about the Open Specifications documents, their organization, language conventions, and references.
Windows Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Windows protocols described in the Open Specifications.
File Services	Discuss technical content and implementation of Server Message Block (SMB) protocols described in the Open Specifications.
Using the Office Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Microsoft Office protocols described in the Open Specifications.
Using the Exchange Server Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Exchange Server and Outlook protocols described in the Open Specifications.
Using the SharePoint Products and Technologies Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies protocols described in the Open Specifications.
Using the Office Binary File Formats	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Microsoft Office binary file formats described in the Open Specifications.
Using the Microsoft SQL Server Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Microsoft SQL Server protocols described in the Open Specifications.
Using the Microsoft VBA Language Specifications	See this forum to discuss technical content and implementation of the Microsoft VBA language specifications described in the Open Specifications.