Reducing File Size

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jay
  • Start date Start date
J

Jay

I have a workbook with 12 sheets, approximately 3000 rows & 10 columns
each. The sheets contain only raw data, no formatting.

Is there any way I can reduce the size of the file. At present it is
over 3MB & I'm wondering if it can be reduced in any way.

Thanks,

-Jay-
 
Jay said:
I have a workbook with 12 sheets, approximately 3000 rows & 10 columns
each. The sheets contain only raw data, no formatting.

Is there any way I can reduce the size of the file. At present it is
over 3MB & I'm wondering if it can be reduced in any way.

Thanks,

-Jay-
Click to expand...

Probably not.

Depends on what you are intending to do with it. If you're trying to
send it via email to someone, I'd recommend zipping it.

Otherwise, you're probably going to have to delete some of the data.

That said, 3MB isn't that big.

Scott
 
Jay wrote...
I have a workbook with 12 sheets, approximately 3000 rows & 10 columns
each. The sheets contain only raw data, no formatting.

Is there any way I can reduce the size of the file. At present it is
over 3MB & I'm wondering if it can be reduced in any way.
Click to expand...

3,000 rows x 10 columns = 30,000 cells

30,000 cells x 12 sheets = 360,000 cells

360,000 cells x 9 bytes per cell = 3,240,000 bytes

Given the number of cells in your workbook, approx. 3MB file size is to
be expected.
 
Maistrye said:
Probably not.

Depends on what you are intending to do with it. If you're trying to
send it via email to someone, I'd recommend zipping it.

Otherwise, you're probably going to have to delete some of the data.

That said, 3MB isn't that big.

Scott
Click to expand...

No, I know 3MB isn't much but my crap ISP has just introduced a 1.5MB
attachment limit, and I was wanting to mail it home to work on.

Jay

P.S Toucan are an appalling ISP. Steer clear
 
Jay said:
No, I know 3MB isn't much but my crap ISP has just introduced a 1.5MB
attachment limit, and I was wanting to mail it home to work on.

Jay

P.S Toucan are an appalling ISP. Steer clear
Click to expand...

[START SMALL RANT]

I always prefer people to zip excel files that they're sending. My
work is very bad for sending unzipped 10+ MB excel files, which can be
annoying for those with dial up accounts. (People send them once, then
others respond without removing the attachment, and pretty soon you've
got a huge amount of junk in your mailbox)

[END SMALL RANT]

If you don't want to use zip, there's winrar and 7z too.

Scott
 
Maistrye said:
Jay said:
No, I know 3MB isn't much but my crap ISP has just introduced a 1.5MB
attachment limit, and I was wanting to mail it home to work on.

Jay

P.S Toucan are an appalling ISP. Steer clear
Click to expand...

[START SMALL RANT]

I always prefer people to zip excel files that they're sending. My
work is very bad for sending unzipped 10+ MB excel files, which can be
annoying for those with dial up accounts. (People send them once, then
others respond without removing the attachment, and pretty soon you've
got a huge amount of junk in your mailbox)

[END SMALL RANT]

If you don't want to use zip, there's winrar and 7z too.

Scott
Click to expand...

Perhaps you can enlighten me. If I zipped the file would it then be a
smaller attachment? How come?

Jay
 
Jay said:
Perhaps you can enlighten me. If I zipped the file would it then be a
smaller attachment? How come?

Jay
Click to expand...

Yes, it would be a smaller attachment. The size of the file you sen
would be smaller.

Examples:
------
1) A file with random data. Generally the worst for compression. Th
Excel file was 42.2 MB, and the WinZip file (max compression) was 23.
MB. With 7zip, this 42.2 MB file was compressed to 16.7 MB. So yo
can see that it was 55% of it's original size with WinZip and 40% wit
7zip. (WinRAR would be similar to 7zip I believe)

2) A spreadsheet I actually use (ie. fairly patterned). The Excel fil
was 9.52 MB -- with WinZip it was compressed (max compression) to 2.1
MB, with 7zip it was compressed to 0.78 MB. So WinZip compressed it t
22% and and 7zip compressed it to only 8% of it's original size.
------

The point of all this is that your file which was 3 MB to start wit
could end up as small as 0.3 MB once you've compressed it (More likel
about 1 MB if you're using WinZip).

It's this final size that ISPs are concerned about -- They do not car
about the original size of your file. Not only that, compressio
places a smaller burden on the infrastructure in most cases.

For a basic outline of what compression does, se
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_compression -- basically it works b
looking for patterns in data, with random data, there are fewer suc
patterns, whereas fairly organized stuff has lots of patterns, so get
compressed smaller.

As to which program to use, it depends on your circumstances. WinZi
(and zip programs in general) are much more widely distributed tha
other compression programs (like WinRAR and 7zip), so if you have t
send it to someone else, WinZip is usually the better choice. For jus
sending it to yourself, you could use any of these programs. Yo
probably already have WinZip on your comp, and you can download 7zi
from www.7-zip.org . WinZip is also probably the easiest to use (sinc
so many have used it, and it's easy to get help if you need it).

HTH..

Scot
 
Because the whole point of ZIPping a file is to compress it to a size
that's considerably smaller, for transport or storage purposes.

Craig
 
Maistrye said:
Yes, it would be a smaller attachment. The size of the file you send
would be smaller.

Examples:
------
1) A file with random data. Generally the worst for compression. The
Excel file was 42.2 MB, and the WinZip file (max compression) was 23.1
MB. With 7zip, this 42.2 MB file was compressed to 16.7 MB. So you
can see that it was 55% of it's original size with WinZip and 40% with
7zip. (WinRAR would be similar to 7zip I believe)

2) A spreadsheet I actually use (ie. fairly patterned). The Excel file
was 9.52 MB -- with WinZip it was compressed (max compression) to 2.10
MB, with 7zip it was compressed to 0.78 MB. So WinZip compressed it to
22% and and 7zip compressed it to only 8% of it's original size.
------

The point of all this is that your file which was 3 MB to start with
could end up as small as 0.3 MB once you've compressed it (More likely
about 1 MB if you're using WinZip).

It's this final size that ISPs are concerned about -- They do not care
about the original size of your file. Not only that, compression
places a smaller burden on the infrastructure in most cases.

For a basic outline of what compression does, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_compression -- basically it works by
looking for patterns in data, with random data, there are fewer such
patterns, whereas fairly organized stuff has lots of patterns, so gets
compressed smaller.

As to which program to use, it depends on your circumstances. WinZip
(and zip programs in general) are much more widely distributed than
other compression programs (like WinRAR and 7zip), so if you have to
send it to someone else, WinZip is usually the better choice. For just
sending it to yourself, you could use any of these programs. You
probably already have WinZip on your comp, and you can download 7zip
from www.7-zip.org . WinZip is also probably the easiest to use (since
so many have used it, and it's easy to get help if you need it).

HTH..

Scott
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for the comprehensive answer Scott - I appreciate it. The
only problem I can foresee is using a compresion tool at work (PC) which
I can also use at home (Mac). I use Stuffit Expander which is supposed
to be able to handle zip files but I've had problems in the past.

But thanks for taking the time to explain it to me. I really do
appreciate it.

Cheers

-Jay-
 
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