How to open old Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE and Access files today
Current Excel no longer opens Lotus 1-2-3 files and cannot save dBASE ones, and Access 2013 and later refuse databases from Access 97. LibreOffice opens Lotus and dBASE files for free, an older Access converts an old database, and once a file is open, save it as .xlsx or CSV.
27 October 2026 · 5 min read
Which file is which
- .wks, .wk1, .wk3, .wk4, .123: Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets, from the DOS versions of the 1980s to the Windows ones of the 1990s.
- .dbf: a dBASE table, also written by FoxPro, Clipper and many accounting and mapping programs. Long text sits in a .dbt or .fpt file beside it, which must stay with it.
- .mdb: Microsoft Access from Access 97 to 2003. .accdb: Access 2007 and later.
- .slk (SYLK) and .dif: plain-text exchange formats for moving spreadsheets between programs.
Lotus 1-2-3
Microsoft’s list of file formats that current Excel does not support includes Lotus 1-2-3’s, so a .wk1 no longer opens there. LibreOffice Calc, free and open source, opens .wks and .wk1 files and some later ones, turning 1-2-3’s @functions into its own. Macros do not run, and later multi-sheet files may come in with formulas as their last values.
Check the dates after opening. 1-2-3 counted 29 February 1900 as a real day, a mistake Excel copied for compatibility, so serial dates line up between them; another program that does not copy it can be a day out for dates early in 1900.
dBASE and FoxPro tables
Excel still opens a .dbf (choose All Files in the Open dialog), but can no longer save one. LibreOffice Calc opens and saves .dbf, and asks which character set the file uses: old DOS files are often in code page 437 or 850, and the wrong choice turns accented letters into symbols.
Two things to watch. Records marked deleted but never packed are still in the file, and some programs show them. And memo fields are empty unless the .dbt or .fpt file is beside the .dbf with the same name.
Access databases
- Access 2000 to 2003 .mdb files open in current Access, which offers to convert them to .accdb.
- Access 97 files do not open in Access 2013 or later. Open them in Access 2010 or 2007, which convert them, then open the result in a current version.
- Without Access, Excel’s Get Data, From Database, From Microsoft Access Database reads the tables, which may need the Access Database Engine, a free download from Microsoft. On Linux and macOS, the free mdbtools exports tables to CSV.
- A database with a password needs that password in every one of these.
SYLK and DIF
Excel and LibreOffice Calc both still open SYLK and DIF files. They hold values and, in SYLK’s case, formulas, but little formatting, so expect plain sheets.
Once it is open
Save a copy as .xlsx for spreadsheets, or CSV for tables you mean to load somewhere else, and keep the original untouched beside it. Compare a few totals against a printout or the old program if you can: an old file is usually the only record of what it holds.
Our own product, disclosed
Where our own software comes into this
We make Rutba Office, a free desktop suite for Windows. Its Worksheets app opens Lotus 1-2-3 .wks and .wk1 files with their formulas working again, and .wk3 and .wk4 files with each sheet in a tab and formulas as their last values. It opens dBASE II to dBASE 7 and FoxPro tables with their memo fields, leaving deleted records out and counting them, and Access .mdb and .accdb files read only, a sheet for each table. SYLK and DIF open too.
Each opens as a workbook to save as .xlsx, and its Data Files app imports any of them as tables of a database. Pressing Save on one asks where to save the .xlsx, so the original is never overwritten.
Related
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