Comments on: Excel Workbook Size Reduction

By: MacPher

MacPher — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:37:25 +0000

If you are using pivots in another version of excel, and saving the same as current version, this may eat up lot of space. I was able to reduce around 100 MB on a file of 104 MB, by discarding the old pivot and working out a new one in the current version ! Try it.

By: Excel Workbook Size Reduction Revisited. « Methods In Excel

Excel Workbook Size Reduction Revisited. « Methods In Excel — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:32:27 +0000

[...] check back in the original post for explanations of these if they don’t make [...]

By: Gordon

Gordon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:25:54 +0000

I recently found a method that can reduce the file size of an Excel file containing significant amounts of VBA, sometimes by as much as 50%.

1) Note file size
2) Open file but do not enable VBA/macros
3) Make no changes
4) Save & close file
5) Check file size again

Even after using Rob Bovey’s Code Cleaner this can sometimes make a huge difference to the size of the file. Many of the workbooks I manage are read-only and reside on a network share somewhere, and as this can make these files much smaller (1300KB down to 700KB etc.) it improves load times, particularly over VPN connections, resulting in an improved user experience.

The files work exactly the same after this is carried out and although I’ve done some examination to see what might have changed I’ve not managed to find anythign. Most likely some internal decrufting is responsible, but I’ve really no idea why this works.

By: Mark Rothfuss

Mark Rothfuss — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:51:01 +0000

PivotTables store a copy of your data as well. If you have multiple PT’s driven off the same set of data, they will each store a separate copy of this data. Your workbooks can get large very quickly this way. To limit this, change all but the first PTs data source to that of the first PT using the data. Only one cache copy will be stored.

By: Charlie Hall

Charlie Hall — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:55:21 +0000

If you are using vlookup to pull data from another workbook, then Excel 2007 (possibly earlier versions as well) keeps a copy of the range data in the workbook – and so if it is a large external range, your workbook can get quite large without it being obvious why

–Charlie

By: Omar

Omar — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:52:45 +0000

I went to the .xlsb format because of faster loading across a network. The smaller file sizes (1/8 of .xls is typical) were a big help too. I consider it to be the successor to .xls but with compression built in.

Why the other formats then? It’s binary, not xml, so it’s not cool (I mean compatible with other applications), and has macros built in so it’s not “safe”.

By: Ross McLean

Ross McLean — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:26:18 +0000

Good comments, I didn’t know about the filter issues, or about .xlsb.

But I have a question if an xlsb can hold code and is the smallest file type, why is there other types – is it that slow loading or something.

Pictures – yep, excellent tip for Power point too, and pivot pivotcache too, yep good.

Any more?

By: sam

sam — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:37:25 +0000

Store it as .xlsb… its the most compressed file format available if you have 2007 and above. Lets you store macros as well

By: Jon von der Heyden

Jon von der Heyden — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:36:07 +0000

A couple of other offenders:

Pictures, although rarely used, can have adverse effect on size. I tend to compress my pics either 96 or 200 dpi.

Pivot cache, see here: http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot04.html

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:14:02 +0000

Ranges that Excel defines when you use filters are stored in the workbook and can also cause problems in large sheets in my experience.

Jan Karel Pieterse’s superb Name Manager (http://www.jkp-ads.com/OfficeMarketPlaceNM-EN.asp) can help identify and remove these ranges, sometimes reducing a file by megabytes.