Error: "too many different cell formats"

[Vlookup help]

I am working with a large model (25MBs) and when I try to make formatting
changes I have started to get the error message:
Error: "too many different cell formats"

What is causing this? Is there a quick fix?

 

[Dave O]

The Microsoft support site discusses this error here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;213904

I encountered this error on a large spreadsheet that I inherited from
another user, who had a number of "back office" or "overhead" tabs
hidden in the sheet. Even though these sheets were for VLOOKUP
purposes and the user never saw them, the sprdsht author formatted
these tabs very heavily. I resolved the error in this sprdsht by
inserting a new tab, copying one of the cells, highlighting all the
cells in an "overhead" tab, and selecting >Paste Special >Format. This
set all the back office tabs to a neutral format, and brought the
number of individual format ranges to below the threshhold described in
the Microsoft site.

This trick might work for you if you also have big ranges of heavily
formatted cells that no one looks at.

 

[Guatama100]

Dave O: Is this similar to the error message I rec'd..."Excel could not save
all data and formatting you recently added to [Filename]"?

 

[Dave O]

Hi, Guatama100-
Your error is different from the "too many formats" error. I searched
the Microsoft Support site and found this, which may apply to your
problem. If you click this link, scroll down to find your error
message and its cause.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211439