Show By Edouard Ouaknine, 17/02/2022, 5 min Want to know how to reduce your Excel file size?We all have an Excel file that’s too large. The kind that takes minutes to open or save, so everything takes twice as long. Florence, Senior Consultant at UpSlide, has a few easy hacks up her sleeve that will help you reduce your Excel file size within seconds. Discover seven easy ways to compress Excel files in the article below. How to audit a large Excel fileBefore we show you how to reduce your Excel file size, we’d first like to share a quick tip on auditing an Excel workbook. For finance professionals working in Transactional Services or Investment Banking, building models with tons of formulas, tables and sheets is the norm. However, the more comments, formulas, conditional formatting and hidden sheets you add, the heavier the Excel file gets. You can easily discover whichsheets are the heaviest in your Excel file. To do so, make a copy of your Excel file and follow these steps:
Spotting the heaviest Excel sheets can help you choose which one to start with. For instance, “sheet26.xml” accounts for almost one-third of the global volume. Usually, it corresponds to the n+1 sheet in your Excel file. So, in the above example, we could start by trimming the twenty-seventh sheet. Be careful! The n+1 rule takes into account hidden sheets. If you have a lot of hidden sheets, it can become tricky to find the right one. One way to know for certain you have the right sheet is to get the exact name. Here is the detailed guide for finding a sheet’s name. Now, it’s time to dive into our seven tips for reducing an Excel file size: Tip #1: Remove conditional formattingConditional formatting comes in handy when you need to highlight specific data. But it can quickly make your Excel file heavy. We suggest removing conditional formatting from your spreadsheet as soon as you are done with it. To do so, you must:
If you want to remove conditional formatting from all of your cells, pick Clear Rules from Entire Sheet. Tip #2: Crop each worksheet to its used rangeDid you know that Excel sheets can have up to one million rows? A good way to reduce your Excel file size is to get rid of the empty rows and columns. Here’s how to do that:
Tip #3: Remove unnecessary formulasWe all use Excel formulas to manipulate and combine data dynamically. But we often forget to remove them when they’re no longer needed.
This will also remove hyperlinks, which make your file heavy. Discover 16 basic Excel tips Tip #4: Compress pictures in ExcelThe golden rule is to avoid having pictures in Excel. If you have to use pictures, it’s best practice to always compress them. Here’s how:
Tip #5: Clear data formattingFormatting enables the eye to naturally structure information. However, formatting your data also weighs your sheets down. If you’re running into difficulties loading a file, we recommend removing your formatting. Follow these few easy steps:
Want to learn the Top 6 Excel financial functions? Tip #6: Delete watchesPeople who work on large files with many sheets and formulas know what watches are (not the one on your wrist!) Numerous watches will weigh down your spreadsheets. Once you’re done with them, a good practice is to remove them from your files:
Tip #7: Eliminate hidden data (sheets, rows and columns)IMPORTANT: We recommend you apply this step last, as it can break formulas and cannot be reversed! Make a copy beforehand. Let’s start with sheets!
Now let’s do the same with columns and rows:
Now that you can see your entire Excel file, you can delete all unnecessary sheets, columns and rows. Moreover, you can easily audit your Excel file to spot heavy sheets with the method we used at the beginning of the article. ✨BONUS TIP: Reduce your Excel file size in one clickAt UpSlide, we like to work on light files. That is why we created a feature that does the work for you: Smart Clean! It applies all the above tips in the blink of an eye. A single click on the UpSlide tab in Excel and your file will be as light as a feather. This feature can reduce your Excel file size up to 99% of its initial weight! Want to find out more about UpSlide’s features and how we help you save time on Microsoft Office? |