Microsoft KB Archive/68498

{| = Saving and Translating Lotus Versions 3.x Files =
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Last reviewed: November 3, 1994

Article ID: Q68498 Summary:

Saving
Microsoft Excel for Windows can save to a Lotus versions 3.x file format (WK3). You can save your file directly to a Lotus WK3 file format by choosing Save As from the File menu, choosing the Options button, and selecting WK3 from the File Format list box.

Note: None of the 3-D (three dimensional) objects in Excel will save to any Lotus file formats.

Opening
Excel can also read Lotus versions 3.x files. The following discusses translation between Excel and Lotus:

  Excel will break a Lotus 3-D cube into separate files. In Lotus, you can insert many sheets (plys) onto one worksheet. Lotus will let you save up to 256 different plys in one worksheet. Excel breaks these plys into separate files when you try to load the worksheet. Excel will successfully break apart about 24 plys into unique sheets before it either gives you an out-of-memory error and/or simply closes all of the sheets it has broken apart. The only solution is to break apart the plies in Lotus before bringing the file into Excel.  Unprotected cells in a Lotus sheet appear in green, but will translate to blue in Excel. Excel uses the Font command from the Format menu to format the cells blue. To remove the color, choose Font from the Format menu and set the color back to automatic. There is no way to change the way Excel translates this. All Lotus sheets will translate to a Courier monospace font. Again, there is no way to change the way Excel translates this. Lotus strings of more than 255 characters will be truncated. The solution is to break the string apart in Lotus before you bring it into Excel. If the Lotus spreadsheet has charts saved with it, Excel will bring up the charts correctly with the exception that it will always bring up one extra chart. As a result, if the Lotus spreadsheet has two charts saved with it, Excel will create three. This is not a problem; simply close the extra chart.
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