Converting Lotus 123 Files To Excel

Excel will open files created in Lotus 1­2­3 versions 2.x­5.x. Most data and formatting created in Lotus 1­2­3 are fully supported by Excel. The latest versions of Lotus 1-2-3 use a file type (.123) not currently supported by Excel. You must save these as .WK4 files before you try and open them in Excel.

Excel opens and saves the following Lotus 1­2­3 file formats.

This Lotus 1­2­3 release	Saves data in this file format
1, 1A	WKS
2.0, 2.01, 2.2	WK1, ALL
2.3, 2.4	WK1, FMT
3.0	WK3
3.1, 3.1+, 1­2­3/W, R1.1	WK3, FM3
4.0, 5.0	WK4

Auditing Converted Worksheets

Audits conducted by the industry on corporate MS­DOS­based worksheets have found that approximately 30 percent of all worksheets contain serious errors. In some cases, major decisions have been made using worksheets that have been incorrect for years.
The only way to catch these errors is with a worksheet audit. You can do the audit while the worksheet is in Lotus 1­2­3 or after it is converted to Excel. The best course is a partial audit on both sides, since each audit catches different problems.

Auditing Your Worksheets Before Conversion

Auditing your Lotus 1­2­3 worksheets before conversion catches problems inherent in the original worksheet, such as values that have replaced formulas, circular errors, incorrect results, and bad range names.

Auditing Your Worksheets After Conversion

Auditing after conversion catches problems introduced by the conversion process or by reorganization and linking. Auditing worksheets in Excel helps you find formulas that did not convert, links that are incorrect, or unexpected problems for which you might need additional help. The following Excel features are particularly useful for auditing:

• Auditing submenu commands (Tools menu)
• Find command (Edit menu)
• Special button in the Go To dialog box (Edit menu)

Note If Excel encounters formulas that it cannot convert when you open a Lotus 1­2­3 worksheet, only the resulting values are displayed. The original formula is discarded. Excel indicates this by displaying a cell comment (and cell comment indicator) in the cell, containing the message "Formula failed to convert.".

Opening and Saving Lotus 1­2­3 Worksheets in Microsoft Excel

The majority of your Lotus 1­2­3 worksheets can be converted to Excel format by opening them and then saving them in Excel.
To open a Lotus 1­2­3 worksheet in Excel

1. On the File menu, click Open.
2. In the Files of type (Windows) or List files of type (Macintosh) box, click Lotus 1­2­3 Files.
   
3. Below the Look in (Windows) or Select a document (Macintosh) box, select the name of the worksheet.
4. Click Open.

Excel converts the Lotus 1­2­3 worksheet and opens it.

How do I know if my work has been successfully converted?

We recommend that you print the key pages or reports from your Lotus files before you convert them, remembering to ensure they are calculated (function key F9) first. After you have converted the files, print the same pages and reports from Excel and make a tick-check comparison between them. If the results are the same, your conversion has been successful.