Are you working with an Excel file that is slow to open, slow to calculate, slow to save, slow to share, and frustrating to work with?
In this blog I highlight one of the potential reasons and a Top Tip to Speed Up Your Excel Files.
Are you suffering due to slow excel files?
A recent client was using a 53Mb file which was slow to open, slow to calculate, slow to save, slow to share, and frustrating to work with. Sound familiar?
A few quick steps reduced that file size to just 2Mb
If your files have been in use for years, you might be suffering due to phantom data.
If so, here is a top tip to help you speed things up with your excel files.
In each worksheet, pay attention to the size of the horizontal and vertical scroll bars. These change in size according to how much data is contained on the worksheet. The smaller they are the more data there is.
They also indicate where you are in relation to the range of data.
If you get to the end of your data, but the excel scroll bars indicate that you are still near the beginning, then something is wrong.
You can verify this by clicking on ‘Workbook Statistics’ on the ‘Review’ ribbon. Excel tells you where it thinks the end of the worksheet is.
If this is not where your data actually ends, then you have phantom data which can be cleared by deleting the rows or columns.
I hope this helps you to work more efficiently in Excel.
The image gallery below will show you in a step-by-step process how to check whether you have phantom data in your spreadsheet.
Of course, there are many more ways to reduce file size and speed up your excel workbooks.
If you have any tips leave them in the comments. You can also find some additional suggestions on my linkedin post.
Check out my blog post about keyboard short-cuts to see other Excel efficiency tips.
If you would like one-to-one training to make your excel workbooks and processes more efficient, send me a message or use the contact form below.
Complete the contact form and I will get in touch with you to discuss your requirements. Let’s put and end to slow and frustrating Excel files!
Cover picture by Koolshooters from pexels.com
