Excel File Size Grows After Deleting Rows & Columns

[Enrique]

I have a 5 meg file that contains several links to other
workbooks. I noticed the original author managed to save
blank rows and columns in each of the worksheets so I
tried deleting the blank rows and columns to reduce the
file size. However, after performing this the file size
grew to 17.8 meg instead!
What did I do wrong and how can I shrink the file size to
something much more manageable?
Thank you,
Enrique

 

[Paul]

I have a 5 meg file that contains several links to other
workbooks. I noticed the original author managed to save
blank rows and columns in each of the worksheets so I
tried deleting the blank rows and columns to reduce the
file size. However, after performing this the file size
grew to 17.8 meg instead!
What did I do wrong and how can I shrink the file size to
something much more manageable?
Thank you,
Enrique

Genuinely blank rows and columns beyond the used range do not add to file
size. What I mean by GENUINELY blank is that the cells contain nothing at
all - not even a space character, for instance - and that they are not
formatted. Formatting of whole rows or whole columns is OK - it's formatting
of particular cells that matters.

CTRL+END will take you to the last used cell on any worksheet. This is the
cell at the intersection of the last used column and the last used row,
whether or not this particular cell is used. The most common cause of
excessive file size is having the last used cell way beyond the area that's
actually used, so check for this using CTRL+END.

 

[pfsardella]

Debra Dalgleish has a good explanation (with pictures) of what may
happening and how to deal with it..

David McRitchie provides additional info on dealing with this issue.

http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html#Unused
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/lastcell.htm

HTH
Paul