Reading a Lotus 1-2-3 Spreadsheet in Excel

Reading a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet in Excel isn't always as easy as it should be. If you're using Excel 5.0 or 7.0, you'll have to save your 1-2-3 file in either the WK1 or WK3 formats. Excel 97 or 2000 can usually read the WK4 format directly. However, if you're using 1-2-3 97, you're out of luck, since the .123 format isn't recognized by Excel. If your 1-2-3 spreadsheet contains formulas that don't have an exact counterpart in Excel, e.g. @XINDEX, Excel will report an error and replace the formula with its value. In some cases Excel will choke on the formatting contained in a 1-2-3 spreadsheet. If so, save the 1-2-3 file in the WK3 format, then delete the associated .FM3 file. You'll then be able to get the data into Excel, at the expense of losing all of your formatting.