I have joined this forum just to ask this one question that googling has not been able to answer for me:

I have many excel docs that contain exported information from our ERP system that contain literally hundreds of, if not more, invisible AUTOPSHAPES and images and I need to remove them. These AutoShapes multiply rapidly, are layered on top of each other by the dozens, and bog down the files causing lags and crashes. Unfortunately though, these documents also contain images that are required, so all of the readily available solutions I've found via google that would delete those as well are not helpful. I have tried accessing the selection pane but there are simply so many AutoShapes and images that trying to select all and then just ctrl+deselecting the Pictures crashes the program.

Please give me some solution, some VBA that I can copy and paste to solve this. But please keep in mind that I am no excel developer, I have no idea what I am doing, I am just desperate for a solution and coming to you all for any help I can get. Please and TIA.

Additional info, not sure if relevant, all of the AutoShapes seem to be named AutoShape 1 - 6, mostly "AutoShape 4" for some reason. There may be others but I have yet to find any beyond 6. And the images are just named "image". The pictures I want to keep all are named "Picture ###" or "Imagen ###", so I feel like that should help narrow down a way to eliminate and keep items selectively?? Yes, that is Imagen, not image spelled incorrectly.

Please save me from my excel torture. Bonus point if you also know how to prevent this from happening again.