Why file opens so slowly?

I would welcome any insights as to why one of my Excel files opens soooo
slowly.

I'm running Win 2K, Excel 2000, with plenty of ram and free disk space.
Normally Excel files open in less than a second. But this one has been
taking more and more time, and recently took 10 - 15 minutes. Saving takes a
long time too.

Really the file is not very big, less than a megabyte. The file has three
sheets. One sheet just has a few hundred words of text; the second sheet has
only 20 numbers and a couple of column sums. The largest sheet has 54 rows
and about 50 columns, only 12 of which are numbers, another 12 just dates.
No complicated formulas--just carrying the sum of one column over to the top
of the next column. There are no macros, no code.

It does have a large number of check-box controls (a few hundred). Could
that be a problem?

I could not find any way to delete the checkboxes in design mode, except by
selecting them one at a time...so I created a new file and cut/pasted
everything but the checkboxes. So far the reconstructed file is opening very
quickly.

Do you think:
1. the checkboxes caused a problem? (if so, I'll avoid them in future, at
least in large quantities)
2. or the file was just corrupted somehow?
3. or some other problem?

Thanks!

If you've used checkboxes from the control toolbox toolbar, try deleting the
files in the temp folder.

Close excel (and don't be installing any new software)
window start button|run
%temp%

is a quick way to get to that temp folder.

Michael Brooks wrote:
>
> I would welcome any insights as to why one of my Excel files opens soooo
> slowly.
>
> I'm running Win 2K, Excel 2000, with plenty of ram and free disk space.
> Normally Excel files open in less than a second. But this one has been
> taking more and more time, and recently took 10 - 15 minutes. Saving takes a
> long time too.
>
> Really the file is not very big, less than a megabyte. The file has three
> sheets. One sheet just has a few hundred words of text; the second sheet has
> only 20 numbers and a couple of column sums. The largest sheet has 54 rows
> and about 50 columns, only 12 of which are numbers, another 12 just dates.
> No complicated formulas--just carrying the sum of one column over to the top
> of the next column. There are no macros, no code.
>
> It does have a large number of check-box controls (a few hundred). Could
> that be a problem?
>
> I could not find any way to delete the checkboxes in design mode, except by
> selecting them one at a time...so I created a new file and cut/pasted
> everything but the checkboxes. So far the reconstructed file is opening very
> quickly.
>
> Do you think:
> 1. the checkboxes caused a problem? (if so, I'll avoid them in future, at
> least in large quantities)
> 2. or the file was just corrupted somehow?
> 3. or some other problem?
>
> Thanks!

--

Dave Peterson

Many thanks--miraculously, after deleting 10GB from the temp folder, the
original excel file opens much more quickly! I never would have guessed the
solution, but am glad it was something simple!


"Dave Peterson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> If you've used checkboxes from the control toolbox toolbar, try deleting
the
> files in the temp folder.
>
> Close excel (and don't be installing any new software)
> window start button|run
> %temp%
>
> is a quick way to get to that temp folder.
>
> Michael Brooks wrote:
> >
> > I would welcome any insights as to why one of my Excel files opens soooo
> > slowly.
> >
> > I'm running Win 2K, Excel 2000, with plenty of ram and free disk space.
> > Normally Excel files open in less than a second. But this one has been
> > taking more and more time, and recently took 10 - 15 minutes. Saving
takes a
> > long time too.
> >
> > Really the file is not very big, less than a megabyte. The file has
three
> > sheets. One sheet just has a few hundred words of text; the second sheet
has
> > only 20 numbers and a couple of column sums. The largest sheet has 54
rows
> > and about 50 columns, only 12 of which are numbers, another 12 just
dates.
> > No complicated formulas--just carrying the sum of one column over to the
top
> > of the next column. There are no macros, no code.
> >
> > It does have a large number of check-box controls (a few hundred). Could
> > that be a problem?
> >
> > I could not find any way to delete the checkboxes in design mode, except
by
> > selecting them one at a time...so I created a new file and cut/pasted
> > everything but the checkboxes. So far the reconstructed file is opening
very
> > quickly.
> >
> > Do you think:
> > 1. the checkboxes caused a problem? (if so, I'll avoid them in future,
at
> > least in large quantities)
> > 2. or the file was just corrupted somehow?
> > 3. or some other problem?
> >
> > Thanks!
>
> --
>
> Dave Peterson