Slow Charts

[alphaorionis]

I had some files created in Excel 2002 (Office XP) which I was using in Excel
2003 without any problems. These files consist of 1 worksheet and around 30
chart sheets. The data worksheet contains 7 columns of raw data,
approximately 20 columns of data computed using formulae and approximately
4000 - 5000 rows. Some columns of the raw data and the computed data are
plotted in various charts.

I've recently upgraded from Excel 2003 to Excel 2007. In Excel 2003, I was
not facing any problems in modifying the charts. However, in Excel 2007 it
takes anywhere between 2 - 7 minutes to simply select a data series and a
similar amount of time apply simple formatting (like reducing the marker
size). This problem persists even after saving the file into 2007 format
(xlsx).

Any suggestions?

Thanks and Regards.

 

[Jon Peltier]

This is an acknowledged problem with Excel 2007. The good news is that
charting performance of Excel 2010 will be about the same as Excel 2003.

- Jon

 

[Martin Brown]

I had some files created in Excel 2002 (Office XP) which I was using in Excel
2003 without any problems. These files consist of 1 worksheet and around 30
chart sheets. The data worksheet contains 7 columns of raw data,
approximately 20 columns of data computed using formulae and approximately
4000 - 5000 rows. Some columns of the raw data and the computed data are
plotted in various charts.

I've recently upgraded from Excel 2003 to Excel 2007. In Excel 2003, I was
not facing any problems in modifying the charts. However, in Excel 2007 it
takes anywhere between 2 - 7 minutes to simply select a data series and a
similar amount of time apply simple formatting (like reducing the marker
size). This problem persists even after saving the file into 2007 format
(xlsx).

Any suggestions?

Apart from sticking with XL2003 which is the sensible choice.

Most other suggestions are illegal involving the use of instruments of
torture on certain MS employees. What you describe is typical for the
large number of graphs and moderate volumes of data plotted scenario.

It might be a bit faster if you destroy the original charts and recreate
them from scratch in XL2007. Unfortunately the default graph lines look
like they were scrawled by a four year old with a thick wax crayon and
as soon as you customise them it slows down again. Glacial slowness of
charts has been a big issue since XL2007 was launched. It was even
slower before SP2!

I have a hunch that imported charts from 2003 are slower than new XL2007
native charts. I have to display an "estimated time to completion in
minutes" for one application that in XL2003 took a few seconds.
Forcing manual recalculation mode might help - at the risk of not always
getting up to date plots when data is modified.

I must admit that once they are drawn the graphs I have behave OK and
are not a problem to flick between or select points and move cursors.
There were other gratuitous portability problems with shapes though.

Regards,
Martin Brown