Spreadsheet table - differential formatting attributes

Question

Spreadsheet table - differential formatting attributes

Jan Havlicek 20

I have a question about differential formatting attributes of table element in a spreadsheet. The element 18.5.1.2 table defines several attributes that reference differential formatting:

dataDxfId
headerRowBorderDxfId
headerRowDxfId
tableBorderDxfId
totalsRowBorderDxfId
totalsRowDxfId

My problem is that most of them don't seem to work or do anything. The only one that works is the tableBorderDxfId attribute (border of the dxfs is applied to the border and non-border parts of dxf are applied to the whole table).

Sidenote: I know I can use different approach to get the desired result, this is about the specification.

As an example: When I define a dxf that is bold and has borders (relevant parts of XML:)

<b>

the table is formatted per dxf upon opening the file.

User's image

But when I replace the tableBorderDxfId attribute with any other different dxf attribute the table doesn't seem to apply the formatting:


</b><table name="Table2">

		</table><b>

User's image

I looked at OI-29500 and haven't seen any additional info. Do any dxf attributes other than tableBorderDxfId do anything in Excel? If so, under what conditions?

</b><table name="Table2"></table>

Tom Jebo 2,451 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2026-04-30T16:47:36.2+00:00

Hi Jan Havlicek,

Thanks for your question I will review and then reply shortly. I've adjusted the tag for this as it looks like it should be related to our Office Open Specifications.

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support
M Saad Khalid 0 Reputation points

2026-04-30T20:29:33.1333333+00:00
Hello Jan,

While Tom looks into the official specifications, here is a practical look at why Excel behaves this way.

You have hit a known quirk where the official OpenXML manual doesn't perfectly match Excel's actual software. Excel basically ignores most of those formatting codes (like dataDxfId and headerRowDxfId) when you put them on the main <table> tag.

Why does Excel ignore them?

Excel's software is hardcoded to rely on Table Styles (the design templates you pick from the top menu) to color in rows and headers. The only exception it makes is for tableBorderDxfId. It allows the border code to work because users constantly draw custom "Thick Outside Borders" around tables by hand, and Excel needed a quick way to save that without creating a whole new Table Style.

How to fix it (The Workarounds): If you want Excel to actually show your formatting, you have two options:

Format the Columns (Easiest): Instead of putting the formatting code on the whole table, put it on the individual columns inside the table (<tableColumn>). Excel will read that perfectly.

Use a Custom Style: Create a custom design in your workbook's styles.xml file, and then just tell your table to use that specific style name (<tableStyleInfo>).

Hope this helps give some context on the backend behavior!
Tom Jebo 2,451 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2026-05-01T18:58:48.9266667+00:00

Hi Jan Havlicek,

I tested some of the dxf attributes for <table> and it seems you're right and this agrees with what M Saad Khalid explained. Because neither ISO/IEC 29500-1 or MS-OI29500 indicate that these attributes would not work (except tableBorderDxfId, I will need to check with our Excel team first and if Saad's explanation is confirmed, I will file a bug against MS-OI29500 to add an implementation note informing implementers of which attributes are processed and which are not.

I'll follow up once I have confirmation.

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support
Tom Jebo 2,451 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2026-05-01T22:02:04.3466667+00:00

Hey M Saad Khalid,

I converted your answer back to a comment as it is actually incorrect. Excel does use all of these dxf related attributes on table elements. Reach out to me if you need further explanation on this.

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support

Answer accepted by question author

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Tom Jebo 2,451 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2026-04-30T16:47:36.2+00:00

Hi Jan Havlicek,

Thanks for your question I will review and then reply shortly. I've adjusted the tag for this as it looks like it should be related to our Office Open Specifications.

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support
M Saad Khalid 0 Reputation points

2026-04-30T20:29:33.1333333+00:00

Hello Jan,

While Tom looks into the official specifications, here is a practical look at why Excel behaves this way.

You have hit a known quirk where the official OpenXML manual doesn't perfectly match Excel's actual software. Excel basically ignores most of those formatting codes (like dataDxfId and headerRowDxfId) when you put them on the main <table> tag.

Why does Excel ignore them?

Excel's software is hardcoded to rely on Table Styles (the design templates you pick from the top menu) to color in rows and headers. The only exception it makes is for tableBorderDxfId. It allows the border code to work because users constantly draw custom "Thick Outside Borders" around tables by hand, and Excel needed a quick way to save that without creating a whole new Table Style.

How to fix it (The Workarounds): If you want Excel to actually show your formatting, you have two options:

Format the Columns (Easiest): Instead of putting the formatting code on the whole table, put it on the individual columns inside the table (<tableColumn>). Excel will read that perfectly.

Use a Custom Style: Create a custom design in your workbook's styles.xml file, and then just tell your table to use that specific style name (<tableStyleInfo>).

Hope this helps give some context on the backend behavior!
Tom Jebo 2,451 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2026-05-01T18:58:48.9266667+00:00

Hi Jan Havlicek,

I tested some of the dxf attributes for <table> and it seems you're right and this agrees with what M Saad Khalid explained. Because neither ISO/IEC 29500-1 or MS-OI29500 indicate that these attributes would not work (except tableBorderDxfId, I will need to check with our Excel team first and if Saad's explanation is confirmed, I will file a bug against MS-OI29500 to add an implementation note informing implementers of which attributes are processed and which are not.

I'll follow up once I have confirmation.

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support
Tom Jebo 2,451 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2026-05-01T22:02:04.3466667+00:00

Hey M Saad Khalid,

I converted your answer back to a comment as it is actually incorrect. Excel does use all of these dxf related attributes on table elements. Reach out to me if you need further explanation on this.

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support

Answer 1

Hi Jan Havlicek,

I have to take back some of my previous comment. I discussed this with our Excel team and while the full story is going to be way more complex than we need to go into here, I can give you a more general rule of thumb. I have a little more testing to verify all the dxf related attributes for Table (from 18.5.1.2) but I wanted to get this to you now to clear up some confusion.

Tables deal with dxf's a little differently than other components and elements. The main thing is that when you specify those dxf related attributes, they do actually get processed by Excel but will only (in general) show up as different formatting (if there is a difference from the style or direct formatting of the table definition) when you grow the table, for example when you add a new column or row. They do not affect existing cells in the table.

I have a simple example using headerRowDxfId. I've attached the style and table parts to demonstrate. If you use these in your test workbook and add a column, you'll see that the new column header does respect the desired differential formatting index referenced by headerRowDxfId.

Note: if you insert a new column or row, table style or direct formatting of existing cells is respected but not dxf formatting.

styles.xml

table1.xml

table2.xml

Once I have tested with all of the dxf related attributes to make sure they follow this, I will file a bug to get some general explanation added to MS-OI29500 saying that basically Table dxf processing only affects new cells added to a table but not existing cells.

Let me know if you have more questions about this or if it's not clear.

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support

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Spreadsheet table - differential formatting attributes

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