Empty Excel file is too large

[Imran]

I have deleted all sheets, and contents from my excel
file, but it's still 2Meg in size. When I zip it, it's
only 90K Bytes. (A blank excel file is usually 90K Bytes)
Why is my empty file so large?
It was originally 5 Meg, and I deleted all sheets,
formulas, and VB codes. Right now there is nothing (except
one empty sheet), but the size is still 2M.
Please respond.

 

[Quark]

Sometimes what I find is that Excel counts unused rows as
part of the file size.
So what I do is highlight all the rows from the first
unused one to the last one, i.e. ctrl+g to bring up the
goto box, then Ax:a65536, and delete the rows, where x is
the first row after all your work ends. This normally
reduces the file size significantly.

Hope that helps.

 

[Lisa B]

Did you accidentally save it as a Picture file? If not
why don't you just hit "print preiview" and see what it
looks like. Chances are there is an image or something in
it. Maybe you selected a huge print area on accident.
Check the header and the footer through the print preview
as well.

good luck

 

[David McRitchie]

Hmmm, you are trying to email a workbook that has no
macros, and has the one requisite sheet, and that sheet is empty.
At this point, I expect there is nothing left that you want to email.

After deleting rows and column, you probably will also
have to save the file. The check of what you have for a
last cell is Ctrl+End

For macros to make worksheets smaller by either resetting the
last used cell, or by making a particular cell become the last cell see
Reset All Lastcells in the Active Workbook (#resetall) ««
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/lastcell.htm#resetall

Making the activecell the LastCell (#MakeLastCell)
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/lastcell.htm#makelastcell

For a macro to remove all modules (program code) from a workbook
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/vbe.htm
just be sure that is what you want.

 

[phassionate]

I've solved this problem

I've read all the threads on all the forums about workbooks that have become too large.

I was having the same problem. File started off about 5mb and after a few weeks had somehow worked up to about 20mb for no real reason.

Yes, it saved a few kb when I deleted all the unused cells at the end of the data rows and columns and saved it again, but I've found the real reason for these huge files!

Take sharing off your workbook!! Then save and save again!! It will reduce the file size by 400% or so!!