import xlrd
import xlwt
fname = "test.xls"
Exel = xlrd.open_workbook(fname, formatting_info=True)
sheet = Exel.sheet_by_index(0)
vals = [sheet.row_values(rownum) for rownum in range(sheet.nrows)]
wb = xlwt.Workbook()
ws = wb.add_sheet('test')
i = 0
for zapis in vals:
        ws.write(i, 0, zapis[1])
        i += 1
wb.save('example1.xls')

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 
import xlrd
import xlwt
 
fname = u'Тест.xls'
exel = xlrd.open_workbook(fname, formatting_info=True)
sheet = exel.sheet_by_index(0)
vals = [sheet.row_values(rownum) for rownum in range(sheet.nrows)]
 
wb = xlwt.Workbook()
ws = wb.add_sheet(u'Тест')
 
i = 0
for zapis in vals:
    #ws.write(i, 0, zapis[2])
    ws.write(i, 0, zapis[0])
    i += 1
 
wb.save('example.xls')