diff --git a/lib/lyx2lyx/lyxconvert_217.py b/lib/lyx2lyx/lyxconvert_217.py
index 875b4f57cb..4a389fecc6 100644
--- a/lib/lyx2lyx/lyxconvert_217.py
+++ b/lib/lyx2lyx/lyxconvert_217.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ bool_table =  {"0": "false", "1":"true" }
 align_table = {"0": "top", "2": "left", "4": "right", "8": "center"}
 use_table = {"0": "none", "1": "parbox"}
 
-table_meta_re = re.compile(r'<LyXTabular version="1" rows="(\d*)" columns="(\d*)">')
+#table_meta_re = re.compile(r'<LyXTabular version="1" rows="(\d*)" columns="(\d*)">')
 def update_tabular(lines):
     i=0
     while 1:
diff --git a/lib/lyx2lyx/lyxconvert_218.py b/lib/lyx2lyx/lyxconvert_218.py
index 4896ff6921..9759fb40c0 100644
--- a/lib/lyx2lyx/lyxconvert_218.py
+++ b/lib/lyx2lyx/lyxconvert_218.py
@@ -399,6 +399,31 @@ def remove_figinset(lines):
 	new = new + ["\end_inset"]
 	lines[i:j+1] = new
 
+attr_re = re.compile(r' \w*="(false|0|)"')
+line_re = re.compile(r'<(features|column|row|cell)')
+
+def update_tabular(lines):
+    i = 0
+    while 1:
+        i = find_token(lines, '\\begin_inset  Tabular', i)
+        if i == -1:
+            break
+
+        # scan table header meta-info
+        lines[i+1] = string.replace(lines[i+1], 'version="2"', 'version="3"')
+
+        j = find_token(lines, '</lyxtabular>', i)
+        if j == -1:
+            break
+
+	for k in xrange(i+2,j):
+	    if check_token(lines[k], "<column"):
+		 lines[k] = string.replace(lines[k], 'width=""', 'width="0pt"')
+	    if line_re.match(lines[k]):
+		lines[k] = re.sub(attr_re, "", lines[k])
+
+	i = i+1
+
 def change_preamble(lines):
     i = find_token(lines, "\\use_amsmath", 0)
     if i == -1:
@@ -412,6 +437,7 @@ def convert(header, body):
 	language = "english"
 
     change_preamble(header)
+    update_tabular(body)
     remove_oldminipage(body)
     remove_oldfloat(body, language)
     remove_figinset(body)