[mso] Re: Bloated Excel Files
- From: Wilson Baptista Junior <wilson@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 10:32:11 -0300
Hi Andrew,
in any application from Microsoft Office, various temporary files may be
created when you open a file, and, by default, these temporary files are
created on the folder where the file resides. In your case, in the
pendrive, as Anne has said. That, by the way, was the cause of many
problems when working from diskettes.
So, even after cleaning up the pendrive as Anne recommended, the best
solution when you're strapped for space is to always copy the file to the
hard disk, work on it, save it on the hard disk, then copy (not save) the
saved file back to the pen drive.
Another advantage of this method is that, when you're working on the file,
the intermediate saves you do as you go along, and of the temporary files
Excel sets up, are made on the HD, and you only save to the pendrive once
when you finish working. The pen drive, being a form of flash memory, has a
limitation on the number of file saves it can do (some say its average life
is around 100,000 saves). Reducing the pen drive wear may be important if
you use it to store more permanent files in addition to just the workbook
you mention.
Also, if you have only 300 lines of data, and 7000 lines with formulas on
them, you could significantly reduce the size of your workbook by deleting
the unnecessary lines, perhaps leaving something like 1500 or 2000 lines,
which would still be five to seven times the amount of lines you actually
use now.
After deleting, save the file, then go to cell A1 and press <control><end>,
and the cursor will move to the cell that Excel stores as the last used
cell in your worksheet. You may find that there are unused columns to the
left of this cell. If so, deleting any unneeded columns to the right of the
last one you have data or formulas on will help too.
After deleting, do not move the cursor and save the file so that Excel will
recognize the size reduction.
Best,
Wilson
At 05:34 1/7/2004, Anne Robson wrote:
>Andrew
>
>If you are running the file direct from the pen drive this is likely to
>be related to the spare memory on that drive - don't forget that there
>will be a temp file created when you open the worksheet/s and they take
>up space on your pen drive until the file is saved and/or closed.
>
>The *logical* solution would be to transfer the files concerned to your
>hard drive, check the pen drive for surplus temp files and anything else
>you don't need to store and then re-save or copy back on the pen drive
>in due course.
>
>HTH
>
>Anne
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
>Behalf Of Andrew Kendon
>Sent: 30 June 2004 22:52
>To: Mso@Freelists. Org
>Subject: [mso] Bloated Excel Files
>
>
>I have a feeling that this is not an uncommon problem:
>
>I have an Excel file of Sessions (i.e. Dates and times each of my
>clients attend classes). One of the fields has a drop down which draws
>information from another file (my "Clients" list). I have also added
>some pivot tables, all of which depend on the one set of data (so not
>too much bloating there). There are no macros (well, ones which I've
>created, anyway).
>
>This file has grown excessively (to around 5Mb), so that when I go to
>save it, it tells me curtly that the file wasn't saved - there's only
>about 3Mb space left on the 64Mb pen drive I store it on. I can get
>around this to a certain extent by 'saving as' to hard disk and then
>copying back but I feel that this is only a stop-gap solution.
>
>There's only around 300 lines of data in it at the moment (though the
>formulae extend, perhaps unnecesarily, to some 7000 lines). The point is
>that it has grown inordinately at some point - possibly when I removed
>and replaced the pen drive. Is there any way of repairing what must be
>a damaged file and restoring it to normal proportions?
>
>Andrew Kendon
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