Lotus → XLSX moves a 1-2-3 workbook into Excel with its arithmetic intact: @functions become Excel functions, sheets stay sheets, and graphs come back as charts.
From real runs
| Element | Result | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Formulas | Kept | A 1996 field-survey workbook kept all 920 formulas; @IF(W2>0,+W2-AA2,-9999) became =IF(W2>0,+W2-AA2,-9999) with its result cached. |
| Multiple sheets | Kept | A Solver tutorial saved as .wk3 kept its four sheets, and a .123 workbook kept its Data and Descriptions sheets with their names. |
| Dates | Kept | Lotus date serials became Excel dates formatted m/d/yy, so 6/3/96 sorts and subtracts as a date. |
| Graphs | Changed | The survey workbook's graph became an Excel scatter chart on a new sheet called Charts, plotting the same two columns over 230 rows. |
| Range names | Lost | Names such as TARGET and ALUMINUM in the Solver tutorial did not become Excel defined names; formulas that used them were rewritten with plain cell references and still calculate. |
| Cell notes and drawn shapes | Kept | In a .123 test file a cell note became an Excel comment, and an arrow, a rectangle and a circle drawn on the sheet stayed as shapes. |
| Cell styling | Kept | Red and yellow fills, patterned backgrounds, 14 and 18 point text and italic and underlined labels in the same test file kept their look in Excel. |
A 1996 field-survey workbook kept all 920 formulas; @IF(W2>0,+W2-AA2,-9999) became =IF(W2>0,+W2-AA2,-9999) with its result cached.
A Solver tutorial saved as .wk3 kept its four sheets, and a .123 workbook kept its Data and Descriptions sheets with their names.
Lotus date serials became Excel dates formatted m/d/yy, so 6/3/96 sorts and subtracts as a date.
The survey workbook's graph became an Excel scatter chart on a new sheet called Charts, plotting the same two columns over 230 rows.
Names such as TARGET and ALUMINUM in the Solver tutorial did not become Excel defined names; formulas that used them were rewritten with plain cell references and still calculate.
In a .123 test file a cell note became an Excel comment, and an arrow, a rectangle and a circle drawn on the sheet stayed as shapes.
Red and yellow fills, patterned backgrounds, 14 and 18 point text and italic and underlined labels in the same test file kept their look in Excel.
We converted our Lotus 1-2-3 sample (151 KB) with Office engine on 2026-10-20. It took 3.0 s and produced a 68 KB Excel XLSX file, 55% smaller than the input. The engine raised 2 warnings, listed below.
Input · sample.wk1 · 151 KB
155,032 bytes
Output · sample.xlsx · 68 KB
Workbook with 2 sheets (Sheet1, Charts); first sheet 231 rows, 8245 cells, 920 formulas, fitted column widths
LibreOffice
soffice --headless --convert-to xlsx --outdir out *.wk1 *.wk3 *.wk4 *.123Reads .wks, .wk1, .wk3, .wk4 and .123 files. Range names are not carried across, so check sheets that depended on them.
pandas
pd.read_excel('out/survey.xlsx', sheet_name=None)pandas cannot read Lotus files itself; convert to XLSX first, then load every sheet as a DataFrame.
The HTTP API and the MCP server run the exact engine this page uses (Office engine); the response carries the same warnings the web converter shows. Check support first with GET /api/v1/pairs?from=lotus&to=xlsx.
curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
-F "file=@input.wk1" -F "from=lotus" -F "to=xlsx" \
--output output.xlsxCurrent Excel blocks the older Lotus formats under File Block Settings in the Trust Center and does not read .123 files, the format of 1-2-3 97 and later. A converted XLSX opens without changing any setting.
In our tests @IF and ordinary arithmetic converted with the same results, across 920 formulas in one workbook. A cell that shows #NAME? in Excel marks a Lotus function with no Excel equivalent; rewrite those by hand.
In our test the workbook's graph was rebuilt as an Excel chart on a sheet called Charts, using the same data ranges. Expect Excel's default colours and fonts rather than the Lotus ones.