Ive pinned the topic and trimmed the title for you.
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Thanks for the discussion that followed up !
Things go into interesting directions 
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It would be nice if there was some standardization, but I don’t expect it. Especially if you go hunting around for schematics in various places. If it helps any, here is how I handle my projects since I work on multiple modules at the same time. It helps me to keep from getting overwhelmed:
I have a big .xls BOM spreadsheet file that I generated myself with the columns arranged into part, part type, number of parts needed, and then a link to wherever I might find it. When I come across a project I want to build, I start a new entry on the master BOM spreadsheet and then copy paste everything where it needs to go in this format. Meanwhile outside of the spreadsheet I have ziplock bags that I put all of the parts for each in progress project into. Then I color code the cell’s on my spreadsheet to indicate if I have the part in the bag, if I need to order it, or if its on order.
Yes, its a bit fiddley, but it really helps me wrangle things and make sure I order what I need. At some point I would like to make an master inventory so I can keep track of all of my on hand parts… but I dunno if I’ll ever get around to it!
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PDF seems the most universal form . yes I say this because I have nothing on my puter to open .xls files 
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Open Office is free! And it can open all of the Micro$oft formats too
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this ?
That is the one! Every time I install a new OS it is one of the first things I get.
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just a bit nervous about " free" stuff it can come with a lot of baggage sometimes .
Unless they have changed something within the last few months, you should be good to go. I’ve been using it for years.
One thing to bear in mind though - you can open office files in open office, but not the other way around. So be careful if you decide to switch formats.
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There’s also LibreOffice which branched off of OpenOffice several years ago:
Also free, also no baggage. It’s the one I use.
But do note that LibreOffice, and I assume OpenOffice, can write .docx/.xlsx/.pptx files which Office can read.
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Yes. I’ve just run into a few instances where I needed to open an openoffice doc on a regular computer that had only office and was boned. If I had saved it in the other format I would have been golden.
There are standard open formats for this kind of information. The simplest and oldest is CSV, an ad hoc format. Any spreadsheet worthy of the name will both produce and accept CSV files.
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Spreadsheet management is a surprisingly useful skill that you really cant go wrong with honing.
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