# Visual Basic > API >  APV File Format

## Dan_W

I use VBA in 64bit office, and so the study and practice of writing code using APIs is an exercise is patience and the art of constantly recovering files from Excel crashing (all the damn time). 

I understand that VB6 comes shipped with an API viewer, which frankly, would've been pretty helpful, but MS did not seem to give much thought to those of us using VBA. There are of course a number of API viewers readily available (like *here*) and *here*, but neither really do what I would like/need it to. Critically, the first one requires an APV file to parse, and I've not managed to find one that deals with 64bit declarations/structs. The second is closed source, requires installation, etc.

What I've done is written my own lookup/conversion tool, but it seems to me it might make sense to convert it into a APV file format if it makes it easier for other people to use. Through semi-regular trawling of the PlanetSourceCode repos on Github, I've come across *LaVolpe's APV File Parser*, which is very helpful for working out how the file is read, and I suppose I could reverse engineer something from this (?), but before I attempted to do so, I was wondering whether someone might have any information on, or be able to guide me on how to go about, creating APV files. 

Thank you.

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