Excel very slow to insert columns

[Guest]

I have recently started having a problem with Excel 2003. I am working with
large Excel files, up to 50,000 rows of data and file sizes 25-50 megabytes,
and running macros to manipulate the data. For the first one or two files all
goes well, but after closing Excel and reopening it with another large file,
I try to insert a column and everything becomes extremely slow - it takes
literally five minutes to insert one column, so I usually end up crashing out
of the programme. Once that has happened, restarting Excel makes no
difference, rebooting the PC makes no difference - the only way to get things
back to normal seems to be a system restore to the last time Excel was
working normally. Then it is all right for another one or two files, but then
the same problem starts all over again.

I am using Windows XP on a PC with 1 gigabyte of RAM.

 

[Bill Manville]

I am working with
large Excel files, up to 50,000 rows of data and file sizes 25-50 megabytes

I would seriously suggest that you consider re-designing your application to
avoid having such large workbooks. Databases are much better at holding
large quantities of data than Excel is. Excel is a great engine for
summarising and displaying data that it can obtain from databases via
database queries.

Operations are generally quicker if calculation is manual, but you probably
know that.

If there are large areas of formulas which can be readily re-created by
filling down or right then it can help to clear all but the first row/column
of those formulas before inserting new columns and then fill them down/right
afterwards. (Saves Excel working through each formula to determine what
changes are required as a result of the insertion, and saving the earlier
version in case of Undo).

Bill Manville
MVP - Microsoft Excel, Oxford, England

 

[Ronald Scott]

There is another thread about row insertion that blames Google Desktop. My
new Dell laptop came from the factory with that installed. Going to the
control panel add/delete programs function and zapping Google fixed the whole
problem! I even turned automatic update back on.