Controls on spreadsheet size

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mattthew McQueen
  • Start date Start date
M

Mattthew McQueen

Folks,

I have a spreadsheet that contains about 3MB of raw data.
However, once I have formatted it using colours, charts,
fonts etc, the size of the sheet balloons to 38MB.

What are the key controls on spreadsheet size in Excel? Is
it sheer data volume, formats, formulas, VB code?

Any ideas how I can retain some of the formatting without
having something of a monster sheet on my hands?

Cheers,

Matt
 
My guess only:

I can't control the amount of data--I need what I need.
Same thing with formulas.

But I can control the amount of formatting I use. I can format complete columns
(or complete rows) the same way. (And do my best not to make my workbooks look
like ransom notes!)

And I've never seen a vast improvement when cleaning up the VBA code. (You can
use Rob Bovey's code cleaner and see how much of a difference it makes in your
workbook. But each time you compile the code (and resave), the workbook will
grow back to its "normal" size.)

You can find Rob's addin at: http://www.appspro.com/

But the thing that I can really control is where excel thinks the last used cell
is. If you hit ctrl-End, do you go to what you expect or do you go way down (or
to the right)?

If you go past what you expected, you could use some techniques at Debra
Dalgleish's site to reset this lastused cell.

http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html#Unused

(And I don't use charts enough to know what to expect.)
 
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