Incredibly large files

flightjock · Mar 19th, 2002, 03:49 AM

One of my workbooks, containing just a few sheets with a limited nr of rows and cols had grown to the incredible size of >14Mb. When I incidently looked in the (Alt-F11) Project explorer I saw that the sheets in this workbook had very odd names, such as "sheet211111111111111111111111111111". Trying to solve the problem I created new empty sheets in the workbook, copied the contents of the old sheets into the new ones, deleted the old sheets and saved the workbook.. To my surprise, the filesize had shrunk to a few hundred kb.
OK, so I solved the problem, but I don't understand how it came up and how to prevent it in the future. Any advice would be more than welcome

Anne Troy · Mar 19th, 2002, 06:10 AM

Why this occurs:

You're copying a sheet, then copying it again, and again. *Internally*, Excel numbers the Sheet1 copy as Sheet11, then a copy of Sheet11 as Sheet111. After while, the names exceed the allowable characters.

Fixes.................

1. If you cannot open the file, get someone with Excel XP to open it for you.

2. If you can open the file, save it to an Excel 5.0/95 version. Close and reopen, save as your version.

or

3. If you can open the file, try copying the sheets to a new workbook.

Avoiding..............

When you've got a spreadsheet setup where you need the same format, create a formatted sheet and copy IT anew each time. Like copied documents, do not make a copy of a copy of a copy.

Additional............

I'm not able to recreate this in Excel 2K, so believe it is something that occurs in 97.

Hope this helps!

_________________
TheWordExpert

[ This Message was edited by: Dreamboat on 2002-03-19 05:11 ]

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Mar 19th, 2002, 03:49 AM	#1
flightjock New Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Schiphol Airport, Netherlands Posts: 48	One of my workbooks, containing just a few sheets with a limited nr of rows and cols had grown to the incredible size of >14Mb. When I incidently looked in the (Alt-F11) Project explorer I saw that the sheets in this workbook had very odd names, such as "sheet211111111111111111111111111111". Trying to solve the problem I created new empty sheets in the workbook, copied the contents of the old sheets into the new ones, deleted the old sheets and saved the workbook.. To my surprise, the filesize had shrunk to a few hundred kb. OK, so I solved the problem, but I don't understand how it came up and how to prevent it in the future. Any advice would be more than welcome

Mar 19th, 2002, 06:10 AM	#2
Anne Troy MrExcel MVP Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Allentown, PA Posts: 2,510	Why this occurs: You're copying a sheet, then copying it again, and again. Internally, Excel numbers the Sheet1 copy as Sheet11, then a copy of Sheet11 as Sheet111. After while, the names exceed the allowable characters. Fixes................. 1. If you cannot open the file, get someone with Excel XP to open it for you. 2. If you can open the file, save it to an Excel 5.0/95 version. Close and reopen, save as your version. or 3. If you can open the file, try copying the sheets to a new workbook. Avoiding.............. When you've got a spreadsheet setup where you need the same format, create a formatted sheet and copy IT anew each time. Like copied documents, do not make a copy of a copy of a copy. Additional............ I'm not able to recreate this in Excel 2K, so believe it is something that occurs in 97. Hope this helps! _________________ TheWordExpert [ This Message was edited by: Dreamboat on 2002-03-19 05:11 ]