Extract text from Encarta data files (WTR)
To convert WTR data files to another format, you need Microsoft Encarta or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Encarta Encyclopedia Data File" file type, you need software like Microsoft Encarta or a similar tool.
A .WTR file is a proprietary data container originally designed by Microsoft to store entries, timelines, and multimedia references for the discontinued Encarta digital encyclopedia.
These files were meant to be read exclusively by the Microsoft Encarta software, typically distributed on CD-ROMs or DVDs. In a completely separate use case, the .WTR extension also serves as a Weather File in fire behavior simulators like FARSITE and FlamMap, where it stores daily environmental observations in a space-delimited ASCII text format.
The massive disadvantage of Encarta .WTR files is their total obsolescence. Microsoft abandoned the Encarta project in 2009, leaving the format unsupported by modern operating systems and web browsers. It is a closed, undocumented binary format. You cannot natively extract the media, and attempting to open it today usually results in an OS error. It effectively traps legacy educational content behind a dead software ecosystem.
For archival purposes, the ideal conversion targets are PDF for formatted text, or JPG and MP3 for embedded media. However, standard online converters universally fail to process Encarta files because they lack the proprietary rendering engine required to unpack the binary structures. Conversely, if your .WTR is a FARSITE weather file, it can easily be converted to CSV or XML since it is just plain text.
This file format is exceptionally difficult to open or convert. Often, only the original legacy software running on a virtual machine can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects standard multimedia embedded within the legacy archive, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your WTR file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted MDB and I0 files.
If you want to convert WTR file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use Microsoft Encarta or similar software from the "Encyclopedia Resource Data Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to WTR, try Microsoft Encarta or another comparable tool in the "Encyclopedia Resource Data Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our WTR converter.