Microsoft Works Spreadsheet to Excel XLSX converter

WKS → XLSX brings a Microsoft Works spreadsheet into Excel as a live workbook, with numbers still numbers and formulas still calculating.

Converted with Office engine · input deleted within 24 h
Free: 5 conversions a day · 5 MB each
Higher limits →

From real runs

What you get — and what changes

Element	Result	What happens
Cell values	Kept	Every text and number cell in the Works test sheets landed in the same cell address in Excel.
Number formats	Kept	Currency ($2.00), percentage (200.00%), scientific (2.00E+00) and fixed-decimal formats came through as Excel number formats, not as text.
Formulas	Kept	In a Lotus-style .wks, the ten products in column C arrived as Excel formulas such as =A2*B2 with their results cached, so the sheet recalculates when you change an input.
Dates and times	Changed	A long-form date (1 February 1989) and two clock times became real Excel dates and times, but a month/day/year date in the same row arrived as the text 3/31/04 and does not sort as a date.
Fonts, colours and alignment	Kept	Bold, underline, italic, red, green and cyan text and left, right and centre alignment matched the Works test sheet.
Sheet name	Changed	A Works spreadsheet has one unnamed sheet, so the workbook gets a single sheet called Sheet1.

Cell values Kept
Every text and number cell in the Works test sheets landed in the same cell address in Excel.
Number formats Kept
Currency ($2.00), percentage (200.00%), scientific (2.00E+00) and fixed-decimal formats came through as Excel number formats, not as text.
Formulas Kept
In a Lotus-style .wks, the ten products in column C arrived as Excel formulas such as =A2*B2 with their results cached, so the sheet recalculates when you change an input.
Dates and times Changed
A long-form date (1 February 1989) and two clock times became real Excel dates and times, but a month/day/year date in the same row arrived as the text 3/31/04 and does not sort as a date.
Fonts, colours and alignment Kept
Bold, underline, italic, red, green and cyan text and left, right and centre alignment matched the Works test sheet.
Sheet name Changed
A Works spreadsheet has one unnamed sheet, so the workbook gets a single sheet called Sheet1.

Sample conversions

Works 2 formatting test sheet

Input: 1,281-byte Works .wks with styled text, four number formats and a row of dates and times.
Output: 5,479-byte XLSX in 1.2 s; one sheet A1:E11. Formats kept; the 3/31/04 date is a text cell.

Small formula table

Input: 852-byte .wks in the Lotus 1-2-3 layout Works also reads: X, Y and Z columns with Z = X × Y over ten rows.
Output: 5,074-byte XLSX in 1.0 s with ten live formulas and the same results (10, 18, 24 … 10).

Works 7 spreadsheet (.xlr)

Input: 10,752-byte .xlr from Works Spreadsheet 7 with one line of text.
Output: 4,709-byte XLSX in 1.2 s; cell A1 holds the text.

A real Microsoft Works Spreadsheet → Excel XLSX run

We converted our Microsoft Works Spreadsheet sample (1 KB) with Office engine on 2026-10-20. It took 2.7 s and produced a 5 KB Excel XLSX file, 4.3× larger than the input. The engine raised 1 warning, listed below.

Input · sample.wks · 1 KB

1,281 bytes

Output · sample.xlsx · 5 KB

Workbook with 1 sheet (Sheet1); first sheet 11 rows, 30 cells, 0 formulas, fitted column widths

Sheets: 1
Sheet names: Sheet1
Rows: 11
Cells: 30
Formulas: 0
Header filter: no
Column widths: fitted

Fonts that are not installed on our servers are replaced with substitutes, so lines can wrap differently.

Options and when to change them

filter: Leave it unset; Works sheets, Lotus-style .wks files and .xlr workbooks are recognised from their contents. Scripts can name an Excel export filter if needed.

Do it yourself

LibreOffice

bash

soffice --headless --convert-to "xlsx:Calc MS Excel 2007 XML" --outdir out budget.wks

A .wks that is really a Linux image-builder or KiCad file opens as text and fails with 'no export filter'; those are not spreadsheets.

Microsoft Works Spreadsheet to Excel XLSX by API or MCP

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=wks&to=xlsx.

curl

curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@input.wks" -F "from=wks" -F "to=xlsx" \
  --output output.xlsx

API reference

When this is the wrong conversion

If the file is a Lotus 1-2-3 .wk1, .wk3, .wk4 or .123, use the Lotus converter, which also covers multi-sheet Lotus workbooks.
If you only need the numbers in another tool, convert to XLSX here and save as CSV from Excel; CSV keeps only the first sheet.
If the .wks file is plain text when opened in Notepad, it is not a Works spreadsheet and we will refuse it.

Microsoft Works Spreadsheet to Excel XLSX questions

Will Excel open a .wks file without converting?

Not reliably. Whether Excel opens an old Works or Lotus-style sheet depends on the version and on File Block Settings in the Trust Center. Converting gives you an XLSX with no settings to change.

What is an .xlr file?

It is the spreadsheet format of later Microsoft Works releases such as Works 7. Inside it holds an Excel-style workbook, which is why it converts cleanly; older Works versions saved .wks.

Why does one of my dates sort as text?

Some Works date formats are stored in a way the importer reads as a label. Select the column in Excel, use Data → Text to Columns, choose Date (MDY) and the cells become real dates.