Number 198 - November 1999
Subject: Supercalc to Excel Conversion...
by Various E-Mail Authors
Ed Note: After a discussion of a SuperCalc problem with TOG Member Gillett I thought perhaps there are others still using SuperCalc (or even VisiCalc) who might be interested in the subject. This was captured from:http://www.computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/ forum/950.html. Click here to go there to see if there are any further comments.


Original Message
    Name: Bob        Date: November 20, 1998
   Subject: Supercalc to Excel conversion...
    Comment: Can any good friends out there help with any advice, utilities or routines that might enable me to convert Supercalc spreadsheets to Excel (Office 97) please. Many Thanks. Bob.

Response Number 1
    Name: R Thomas Date:        December 22, 1998
    am interested in the same thing... have nothing to offer at the moment, in the way of advice, but am working on it... how far have you got???

Response Number 2
    Name: Jim McGraw        Date: January 31, 1999
    Reply: I do not have a solution, but I am also interested in the same question. I have many files to convert. Would also be interested in whether anyone knows if SuperCalc 5 is Y2K compatible.

Response Number 3

    Name: Paul Garland        Date: February 09, 1999
    I am still using SC4 and have the same problem if anyone comes up with a solution

Response Number 4
    Name: Paul Garland        Date: February 10, 1999
    For smaller spreadsheets export the file in 123 format. Then import the 123 format into Excel. With large spreadsheets you will get an error message "Cells out of range" but it works fine for reasonably sized spreadsheets. pgarland@compuserve.com

Response Number 5
    Name: Stephanie Keenan Date: February 11, 1999
    Reply: Enquiry on behalf of a colleague who no longer has a PC with Supercalc installed but would like to open some old supercalc files in Excel or 1-2-3. Can anyone suggest a means of doing it? Thanks

    Ed Note: You need to open files in SuperCalc and //Export them. See Response #4 and Footnotes.
 
Response Number 6
    Name: Tim Babel        Date: March 19, 1999
    Reply: Converting SuperCalc sheets will work with Lotus, then into Excel, but I have SuperCalc 5.5 still in use, and intend to take it forward into the year 2000. Largely the conversion does not appeal because all the lengthy self-building auto-run macros I have written are meaningless drivel in Excel.

    Its date-handling is until 2046 if I recall, and performed well on all tests that I tried. Network support officially stops at Novell 3.12, but I am searching for other options. My network guru no longer wants to be involved with Novell.

    Has anyone made it work over the Win 95 Microsoft peer-to-peer arrangement? Files and printing move fine via Windows, but no recognition of it from within SuperCalc; "path not found".

Response Number 7
    Name: Layne Moore        Date: April 30, 1999
    Reply: I am unable to export the supercalc spreadsheet using the lotus 123 extension. How can I do this?
Response Number 8
    Name: John        Date: May 18, 1999
    Reply: Not sure if this will help but I recently had to export 2 Supercalc files to Lotus. What I did was open the file in Supercalc, choose export, and choose convert to .csv file.1 Once I had this converted I was able to open it in Excel and save it as a .wk4 file for Lotus. It seems to work fine and hope this may help someone out there.

Response Number 9
    Name: Jenn Mewes        Date: May 28, 1999
    Reply: Actually I was wondering if someone could tell me how to get in touch with the company that owns SuperCalc, I am looking for year 2000 information. Thanks.

Response Number 10
    Name: gio        Date: June 02, 1999
    Reply: can anyone please send me SC5.ZIP file? thanks! zmisha@hotmail.com

Response Number 11
    Name: Laurie Hawkins        Date: June 08, 1999
    Reply: If you don't mind spending some money, there's a company out there that will convert your SuperCalc files for you (including all formulas). See
    http://www.triousa.com/Convert/Supercalc.htm

TOGGLE Editor's Notes:
    Responses 4 and 6 are the most helpful. But you have to have a working copy of SuperCalc (maybe version 3 for DOS, but certainly 4 or higher) to first /Load the SC spreadsheet and then to //Export it to another format.

    I, too, have built several fairly complex macros (SuperCalc's .XQT files) that work like a charm in SuperCalc4, doing calculations involving the interaction of the contents of multiple spreadsheets, such as Federal Income Tax and Checkbook-Asset Management-Networth calculations.

    I have tried Quicken and Excel but have never developed the familiarity to be as comfortable with them as I am with SuperCalc, so I go back to what I know and understand. And, as Tim Babel says in Response Number 6 converting macros to Excel or Quicken is a nightmare. You really have to start from scratch and develop them all over again--which means you need a fairly intimate knowledge of the inner workings of each program.

    Two major problems with using an "old" software program are:

    1 Modern laser or inkjet printer drivers are not available in a 1980s era program, so printouts are not as fancy looking, and

    2 SuperCalc 4 doesn't remember previous commands to suggest time-saving entries, the way Quicken does, for example. You must personally, and carefully, watch all cell (row/column) replications and conversions yourself. Not a big deal, if you are familiar with the software and its limitations, but less convenient than more recent software features.

Footnotes:
  1 CSV Files: Most programs will import a csv (Comma Separated Values) file but such a file contains values only and loses all formatting. In SuperCalc 4 you can //Export a SuperCalc (.CAL) file to a Lotus (.WK1 or .WKS) file and Import that into Excel and still retain most formatting.
 
  Number 198 - November 1999