File size shrinks dramatically after deleting one inconsequential column

Hi Riley,

I'd look for a bunch of small objects in that column that you deleted. Objects can take up lots of space, even if they are of size 0.

To test my theory, use "Find & Select - Objects" and delete all objects instead of the column to see if it reduces filesize.

Hey rrriley,

There is a tool called Power Up Utilities that can analyze what is on your sheets. I have it and it might be what you need to solve your problem. Find it at:

http://spreadsheetpage.com/index.php/pupv7/home

It has a tool called Object Report than would show any of my suspected hidden objects. There are many other tools telling you about your worksheets and workbook that might solve your puzzle.

What formulas where in that column (show them please) and how far down did they go?

OK, thats a simple enough formula, and not used excessively, so that should not have caused the problem.

some other things to consider...
For large files, Maybe try this...
1. click end/home and see where the cursor lands.
2, if it is "out in the middle of nowhere", start to CAREFULLY delete rows and columns until you get back to the last row and column that you KNOW contains data
3. Save the file under a different name (so you don't mess up the orig file)
4. Close and re-open and see if that helped?

Also...
for DV, make sure you are not referencing full-column/row ranges, use only the range you need.
Check for range names that :"grew" or that are no longer needed (some may have come across with the DV sheets)

This is the result of what is commonly referred to as excess content or excess cells. Excel thought the used range of cells went way beyond the range of cells you actually had content in. What you effectively did was clear out the excess content and Excel now sees the proper used range on that sheet.

Its a pretty common issue and can be caused by numerous things, usually down to how data is moved to and manipulated on the sheet. How content is copied/pasted, how content is filled in a column/row, etc.

As soon as Excel thinks a cell is significant, it has to track it, even if it doesnt literally have content in it. It does this for thing like sorting, filtering, calculations etc. Doing this takes up space in the file to keep track of those relationships with the other cells and values on the sheet.

This can happen in the form of extra columns and/or rows in the used range beyond what you intended to use.

The file size you are seeing now is likely the correct size for the amount of content you actually have. There are other forms of excess content that can take place in a file and eat up space, like named ranges, styles, formats even print settings. Its possible none, some or all of these are affecting things as well. Each is checked and remedied in different ways. Some like excess named ranges or styles can be fixed using tools that automate the process whereas excess cells generally cannot be remedied this way and requires human oversight as the base problem is the computer/program/code cant tell the difference between a cell with desired content in it or a cell with erroneous content in it.