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Issues with Excel


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#1
Racin10s

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I am not the best at explaining issues, so please bear with me. I have Office 2007, running with XP Pro w/ sp3. This is running on my work laptop and my IT department can't fix the issues. I am not sure if they are all related or not.

First issue that I noticed is that excel was taking a long time to load/save/formula calcs. Then shortly after I was getting errors that I had too many formats in my workbook. I think removed almost all formatting in the sheets and made it all universal. There are about 15 tabs and most sheets don't go past 50/z. A few go to 500 or so. I also use this file on a daily basis. So it is constantly being opened and closed.

I then noticed that I could not copy and past between workbooks. I would copy the information and when I pasted it, the area where it should be is outlined, but no information is there. No, its not a formatting issue, the info is just not there. I then noticed that I could copy and paste 1 time and after that it would not work. Also, it still allows me to copy and paste within the same workbook.

I then noticed that Excel was saving the file to a much larger size then it should be. It didn't matter if the file had 1 row or 1000 rows, the size is around 300kb.

Please help and give suggestions. These issues are keeping me from completing my job functions and my IT dept claims I am doing something wrong for these issues to be happening. Some steps they used to fix...

Clear cache. Run fix Office. reimaged my machine. updated bios.

Thanks for any help you can give me....
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#2
Jonesey

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The "Too many formats" message relates to the number of custom number formats you've created.

Go into Format > Cells > Custom

You'll see a list of all the special number formats that have been created, as well as several built-in ones.

The first 30 or so are built-in and can't be deleted, but any entries below these can be - just select/highlight and press the delete key.

See if that works/helps.

Also, check to see if you've got any conditional formatting applied to any cells.

Conditional Formatting can have a huge impact on file size / time to load/calculate etc - I've noticed this myself in the past.
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#3
Racin10s

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Thanks.... But I am trying to fix the cut and paste issue and large file issue the most... I just gave an overview of all the problems I am having....

Another issue is that about one time every 2 weeks it corrupts the s/s that I keep working. Excel is not able to recover the file either and I must start over each time... Gets old really fast.
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#4
Jonesey

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Strange.

Try your copying and pasting in 2 stages:

1 - copy what you want copied
2 - on the destination workbook, click edit > pastespecial > formulas
3 - on the destination workbook, click edit > pastespecial > formats

Does that make any difference?

Can you paste ANY of the options from the pastespecial dialog box? Column Widths, Values etc


Also, from the help menu, select detect & repair, see if that makes any difference.

What are your pc specs?
Processor, OS, HDD capacities & free space, Video Card & Ram
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#5
Racin10s

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Here is my system config:

2.0 GHz Pent M
XP Pro SP3
HDD: 40 GB with 19.6 free
Video: ATI Mobility x300
2 GB of RAM

When I use the paste special functions, it tries to past what I have copied as a bitmap. Very odd, as what I have copied is from Excel 07.... Even if I try and paste anything as a bitmap or text whatever, it still pastes as blank.
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#6
Racin10s

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Really need some help here.... All the people that have looked don't have any suggestions? Please... This is driving me crazy and adds so much more work to my job.

Spreadsheet had another critical error yesterday and killed all the formatting again. This is starting to happen weekly.
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#7
Racin10s

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Not looking food for help here I guess :) :)
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#8
Vino Rosso

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I then noticed that Excel was saving the file to a much larger size then it should be. It didn't matter if the file had 1 row or 1000 rows, the size is around 300kb.

Usually a symptom of excess formatting, especially coloured backgrounds. Look for areas that have been highlighted unnecessarily. For example, A1 to C50 should be coloured but columns A to C have been coloured (A1 to C65536). The same can happen with rows. A1 to Z1 has been highlighted by colouring the whole of row 1.

Try File > Save as... > and saving as a new file name. On occasion, this will reduce the file size.
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#9
Racin10s

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I then noticed that Excel was saving the file to a much larger size then it should be. It didn't matter if the file had 1 row or 1000 rows, the size is around 300kb.

Usually a symptom of excess formatting, especially coloured backgrounds. Look for areas that have been highlighted unnecessarily. For example, A1 to C50 should be coloured but columns A to C have been coloured (A1 to C65536). The same can happen with rows. A1 to Z1 has been highlighted by colouring the whole of row 1.


That is what makes this so strange. There is no visible formatting. As an example, I can open a brand new spreadsheet, enter a number in A1 with no formatting. Excel will save the file and it will be 301kb. So I don't believe the issue is excessive formatting in the normal sense.
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#10
Vino Rosso

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OK, here's a few more things to check.

Close Excel.

Do you have Sheet.xlt or book.xlt in your XLSTART folder? This can be in one of two places.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICEnn\XLSTART
or
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART

Try renaming Sheet.xlt (or book.xlt) to Sheet.xlt.old (or book.xlt.old) and restart Excel. Any difference?

Also, there is a file that hold all the toolbar settings which can become corrupt. With Excel closed, try renaming Excelnn.xlb to Excelnn.xlb.old. (Excelnn.xlb is often hidden.)
Re-start Excel and it will create a new copy of Excelnn.xlb. Any difference?

Note: nn will relate to your version of Office.
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