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Read/Convert old Lotus WK1 and WK4 files

Anonymous
2013-01-17T15:44:05+00:00

I am archiving some old tax records and find that I did some of the old tax computations with Lotus 1-2-3. (WK1 and WK4 file extensions).

I have Excel 2010 (and Excel 2007), but neither will read the old WK1 & WK4 file formats.  Apparently earlier versions of Excel will import these files, but support for those files was dropped in Excel 2007.

Since I have legitimate copies of Excel 2007 and 2010, is there any way to get access to the older versions of Excel -- or get access to the software that would read the WK1 and WK4 formatted files (these are the preferred approachs).

If that is pretty much impossible, has anyone else had this problem and used one of the file conversion programs offerred on the Internet.  My real question about these programs is, just how safe are they.  I am really trying to stay away from downloading any questionable software.

Or any other advice/help will do.  Thanks.

(The files date back to 1987 and even though I have always preferred Word and Excel, the files were done with Lotus 1-2-3 when I worked at IBM on a workstation product, and at the time, IBM was pedaling the Lotus products and they were available to IBM employees free.)

Ron in Round Rock

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-01-19T15:30:22+00:00

    JasperP-

    Thanks for the help.  After looking at the site, I thought it to be OK (as if I can tell by looking).  Anyway, it looked like a good organization and so I went for it.

    It was kind of hard to figure out how to get the latest version (1.12.0) and I ended up downloading Gnumeric 1.10.16, BUT IT WORKED GREAT.

    The version I downloaded was able to read both old Lotus WK1 and WK4 files, and I was able to re-save the files in the Excel 2010 format.  I had a very sinple spread sheet duplicating the entries on a tax form (just so I didn't make mistakes as I was filling out the form), which I used for several years until TurboTax came out with the forms for my State.

    There was only one glitch, which was handling an IF (logical test, true, false) statement (balance owed or balance refunded -- probably the most complicated formula on the whole 58 line spread sheet), but that was minor and easily reapired (only had two of them).  The case of True was handled correctly, but when I tried to show a "NA" on the spread sheet when the test was evaluated as False, it failed -- and gave me a "#VALUE!" error in that cell.  So the "IF" processing sort of worked, at least half the time (I either owed tax or I got a refund).

    I guess the othe rminor thing to note is that when I did read the .xlsx file back into Excel 2010, the Excel program complained about "Excel found unreadable content in "xKansas89.xlsx>" -- and it references a non existent Cell (the error was: "Removed Part: /xl/styles.xml part with XML error. (Styles) Load error. Line 26, column 25.").  I don't know what that is/was about, but everything looks the same and looks right on the spread sheet (maybe it was complaining about the Cell that Gnumeric couldn't handle, but the entries in those two cells  are still there).

    Anyway, I got what I needed -- and my resoponse is probably more information than you or other people needed. 

    So thanks again for the help.  I am going to mark your response as ANSWERED.

    P.S.  While writing this Reply,  and double-checking what was going on, it looks like there may be more of a problem with the WK4 files, but again, the main body of the spread sheet loaded OK -- and I think, since it is such a simple spread sheet, I will easily be able toi repair the formulas.

    Ron in Round Rock

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-28T20:29:44+00:00

    I just found out CNET still has a copy of Gnumeric. It's pretty old, but worth a try.

    http://download.cnet.com/Gnumeric/3000-2077_4-10968476.html

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-09T11:38:00+00:00

    I just tried to get Gnumeric but it seems that no Windows version is now (Oct 2015) available.

    I then found free, open source, Apache Open Office (version 4.1.1).  This opens my .WK1 file with no obvious problems. This is a very simple spreadsheet however and I don't know how it will perform with anything more complex.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-11T19:11:38+00:00

    This may sound bad on a Microsoft forum, but, OpenOffice Calc will open the .wk1 and wk4 files.  I then saved them in the default Calc format and was able to open that file in Excel 2013.

    Hope this helps

    loren

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