WK1 records

Lotus published the layout of its worksheet files in 1984, in a document called Worksheet File Format, which covers 1-2-3 Release 1A (.wks) and Symphony (.wrk). Release 2 (.wk1, 1985) kept the same records and added more, which that document does not describe. This page lists every record the document defines. All numbers are little-endian; rows and columns count from 0, so cell A1 is column 0, row 0, and column IV is 255.

Record header

Offset	Size	Field	Meaning
`0`	2	type	The record type (opcode).
`2`	2	length	Length of the body that follows, in bytes.

The file is just records one after another, from BOF to EOF. A reader can skip any record it does not know by its length. Below, offsets are within the body, and a range is four 2-byte values: start column, start row, end column, end row.

BOF and EOF

Type	Name	Length	Body
`0x00`	BOF	2	Revision: `0x0404` 1-2-3 Release 1A (`.wks`), `0x0405` Symphony, `0x0406` 1-2-3 Release 2 (`.wk1`).
`0x01`	EOF	0	None; the last record.

The Lotus document lists only the first two revision numbers; 0x0406 is the value Release 2 writes, as found in WK1 files.

Worksheet settings

Type	Name	Length	Body
`0x02`	CALCMODE	1	`0x00` manual recalculation, `0xFF` automatic.
`0x03`	CALCORDER	1	`0x00` natural order, `0x01` by column, `0xFF` by row.
`0x04`	SPLIT	1	Window split: `0x00` none, `0x01` vertical, `0xFF` horizontal.
`0x05`	SYNC	1	Split windows scroll together: `0x00` no, `0xFF` yes.
`0x06`	RANGE	8	The range that holds data; start column −1 if the sheet is empty.
`0x07`	WINDOW1	31	Window 1 settings.
`0x08`	COLW1	3	Column (2 bytes) and its width in characters (1 byte), window 1.
`0x09`	WINTWO	31	Window 2 settings, as WINDOW1.
`0x0A`	COLW2	3	Column width in window 2.
`0x0B`	NAME	24	Named range: 16-byte zero-terminated name, then the range.
`0x24`	PROTEC	1	Global protection: 0 off, 1 on.
`0x29`	LABELFMT	1	Default label alignment: `0x27` (`'`) left, `0x22` (`"`) right, `0x5E` (`^`) centre.
`0x2F`	CALCCOUNT	1	Number of recalculation iterations.
`0x31`	CURSORW12	1	Cursor in window 1 or 2.

WINDOW1 and WINTWO

Offset	Size	Field
`0`	2	Cursor column
`2`	2	Cursor row
`4`	1	Default cell format
`5`	1	Unused, 0
`6`	2	Default column width
`8`	2	Columns on screen
`10`	2	Rows on screen
`12`	2	Left column shown
`14`	2	Top row shown
`16`	2	Number of title columns
`18`	2	Number of title rows
`20`	2	Left title column
`22`	2	Top title row
`24`	2	Border width, column
`26`	2	Border width, row
`28`	2	Window width
`30`	1	Unused, 0

Cell records

Type	Name	Length	Body
`0x0C`	BLANK	5	Format, column, row. Written only for empty cells that are protected or have a non-default format.
`0x0D`	INTEGER	7	Format, column, row, signed 16-bit value.
`0x0E`	NUMBER	13	Format, column, row, IEEE 754 double.
`0x0F`	LABEL	varies	Format, column, row, zero-terminated text (up to 240 bytes) starting with its prefix character.
`0x10`	FORMULA	varies	Format, column, row, the last result (double), the formula length (2 bytes) and the compiled formula (up to 2,048 bytes).

Their contents are described on Cells and formulas.

Ranges for commands

Type	Name	Length	Body
`0x18`	TABLE	25	Data table: 1 byte table type (0 none, 1 Table 1, 2 Table 2), the table range, input cell 1 and input cell 2 (each 8 bytes in range form).
`0x19`	QRANGE	25	Query: input, output and criteria ranges, then the last command (0 none, 1 find, 2 extract, 3 delete, 4 unique).
`0x1A`	PRANGE	8	Print range.
`0x1B`	SRANGE	8	Sort range.
`0x1C`	FRANGE	8	Fill range.
`0x1D`	KRANGE	9	Primary sort key: range, then order (`0x00` descending, `0xFF` ascending).
`0x20`	HRANGE	16	Distribution: values range and bin range.
`0x23`	KRANGE2	9	Secondary sort key, as KRANGE.

Printing

Type	Name	Length	Body
`0x25`	FOOTER	242	Footer text, zero-terminated.
`0x26`	HEADER	242	Header text, zero-terminated.
`0x27`	SETUP	40	Printer setup string, zero-terminated.
`0x28`	MARGINS	10	Left, right, page length, top and bottom, 2 bytes each.
`0x2A`	TITLES	16	Print borders: row range and column range.
`0x30`	UNFORMATTED	1	0 formatted, 1 unformatted output.

GRAPH and NGRAPH

0x2D GRAPH (437 bytes) holds the current graph; 0x2E NGRAPH (453 bytes) a named graph, with a 16-byte name in front and the same fields 16 bytes further on. GRAPH:

Offset	Size	Field
`0`	8	X range
`8`	8 × 6	Data ranges A to F
`56`	8 × 6	Data label ranges A to F
`104`	1	Type: 0 XY, 1 bar, 2 pie, 4 line, 5 stacked bar
`105`	1	Grid: 0 none, 1 horizontal, 2 vertical, 3 both
`106`	1	0 black and white, `0xFF` colour
`107`	6	Line format for A to F: 0 none, 1 line, 2 symbol, 3 both
`113`	6	Data label position for A to F: 0 centre, 1 right, 2 below, 3 left, 4 above
`119`	1	X scale: 0 automatic, `0xFF` manual
`120`	8 + 8	X lower and upper limits (doubles)
`136`	1	Y scale: 0 automatic, `0xFF` manual
`137`	8 + 8	Y lower and upper limits
`153`	40 × 4	First and second titles, X axis and Y axis titles
`313`	20 × 6	Legends A to F
`433`	1	X axis number format
`434`	1	Y axis number format
`435`	2	Skip factor (label every `n`th X value)

The Lotus document’s NGRAPH table has gaps and numbering slips (it lists the first title from offset 209 while the Y limits end at 168); a reader is safest taking NGRAPH as the 16-byte name followed by a GRAPH body.

Symphony-only records

These appear in Symphony worksheets (.wrk, .wr1), not in 1-2-3 files; they are listed so a reader recognises them.

Type	Name	Length	Purpose
`0x32`	WINDOW	144	A named Symphony window: type (sheet, doc, graph, comm, form), ranges, display and document settings.
`0x33`	STRING	varies	Text result of a string formula: format, column, row, zero-terminated text.
`0x37`	PASSWORD	4	File lock checksum (not documented).
`0x38`	LOCKED	1	0 off, 1 on.
`0x3C`	QUERY	127	Named query settings.
`0x3D`	QUERYNAME	16	Current query name.
`0x3E`	PRINT	679	Named print settings.
`0x3F`	PRINTNAME	16	Current print settings name.
`0x40`	GRAPH2	499	Named Symphony graph.
`0x41`	GRAPHNAME	16	Current graph name.
`0x42`	ZOOM	9	Zoom flag, x, y, column and row depth.
`0x43`	SYMSPLIT	2	Number of split windows.
`0x44`	NSROWS	2	Screen rows.
`0x45`	NSCOLS	2	Screen columns.
`0x46`	RULER	25	Named ruler: name, range, single cell or range.
`0x47`	NNAME	25	Named sheet range, as RULER.
`0x48`	ACOMM	65	Path of the communications file to load automatically.
`0x49`	AMACRO	8	Range of the macro to run on loading.
`0x4A`	PARSE	16	Query parse and review ranges.

Release 2 additions

Release 2 (.wk1) adds record types and formula function codes that Lotus did not include in the published 1984 document, and no other public description of them was found for this page, so they are not listed here. A reader that skips unknown records by length can still read every cell of a WK1 file.

.WK1 File Format – Records