Why does the file utility identify Microsoft Word files as CDF? What is this CDF?

Question

I have some old Microsoft Word files (probably Word 97) lying around here and noticed that the standard Unix file utility identifies such files as \"CDF\". It is actually mo

Answer 1

Compound Documents format is related to OLE/COM. It refers to linking and embedding objects, for example, Excel charts in Word documents.

See the historical (pre-XML) document specifications for MS Office, and the specific file format description is "Windows Compound Binary File Format Specification".