Workbook Size Grows

[ExcelBuffoon]

Hi Guys,

Office 2007 Pro VSL (site) License

I have a problem at my Company which is so commonplace, I can't believe it's not a well known issue.

Basically, workbook file sizes get really big, but don't really have a lot of added content. Some users are doing something which causes this, but I have been unable to fathom out the common cause. Someone told me recently they had narrowed down the issue, but I have not had a chance to prove it. In any case, it may just be one part of a larger issue.

What they have said is, if someone opens a spreadsheet to edit (they are the first to open), someone else then opens it (and get the read only warning), if the first user then adds some data in to a sheet within the workbook then saves at some stage, the file size increases disproportionally to the extra work completed.

I have taken one of the workbooks, which started as 128k approx, then grew to 10 - 20 meg. I then created a brand new workbook, copied all the contents from each worksheet in to the new workbook, saved it and the file size returns to normal (around 200k etc). The reason I notice this happening is due to sales people emailing spreadsheets around the office and I notice the Exchange server database growing alarmingly. After investigating, I find the culprit and the offending file, which is then resized as above.

One other thing I have noticed which may or may not be a contributing factor is this. Some people have a habit when formatting cells to select infinity (the cell or column heading such as C or 6 etc) rather than just the used cells in a block. For example, when I scroll down, I see columns 3, 4 & 5 all formatted to a yellow background, but rather than just the used rows, the yellow formatting carries on for ever. I don't know whether this is an issue, or whether it is an issue under certain circumstances. It's not something I would do but I can imagine a lot of people doing it as it is easier than scrolling down just to the and of data.

Has anyone else seen this? I don't think the issue existed with our previous installations of 2003, and I only saw it appearing when some people started to get Office 2007 OEM pre installed. Since that time we have changed our licensing to 2007 VSL so that everyone is now on the same version. I had hoped the issue was due to a 2003 / 2007 compatibility, but this would seem not to be the case as we are all now on 2007 and the issue remains.

Thanks and regards,

Phil

 

[bensonsearch]

hi,
are any of the users inserting images at all?

 

[ExcelBuffoon]

hi,
are any of the users inserting images at all?

Hello,

Yes, sometimes but not always. I did have one where they had insertec BMPs! I changed these to jpg and the file size dropped dramatically. The main issue I highlighted though is not related to pictures though, as the original usually contains pictures (jpegs) and the starting size is small.

 

[bensonsearch]

sometimes even a jpeg image can take alot of space, I had a workbook that listed descriptions and their pics (JPEG) after about 20 rows (not alot) the size was already over 5mb.

otherwise id say they could be playing with formatting to an infinate amount. eg instead of the workbook ending at 100 rows it goes down to 1000, therefore adding 900 extra blank rows of data