Excel 2007 Speed Problem

[JohnnyG]

I have upgraded from Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 and am experiencing a
tremendous decrease in speed. The following speed comparisons were done on
the same machinewith the same file containing about 50 columnsx 5000 rows of
data and 7 charts of the data.

Time to select 4 charts:
Excel 2003: 4 seconds
Excel 2007: 57 seconds

Time to copy the 4 selected charts and paste them into Words 2007:
Excel 2003: 18 seconds
Excel 2007: 60 seconds

Finally, when saving the Word file in .doc format with the same graphs
pasted from the same excel file, here are the file sizes:
Graphs from Excel 2003: 187K
Graphs from Excel 2007: 235k

Is there any way to speed up Excel 2007? And why are the Word files larger?
This is a problem because we zip up a number of word files and send them via
email - the same files with graphs from Excel 2007 are now too large to send
in one email.

Thanks,
John

 

[Jim Rech]

Many people have reported performance issues with Excel 2007. No one has
posted an explanation or an answer so far, especially MS. As to the Word
file size that's news to me but this is an Excel NG. Have you tried the new
DOCX format? Users of Office 2003 would have to install the file converter
to read them but it might reduce file size.

--
Jim
|I have upgraded from Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 and am experiencing a
| tremendous decrease in speed. The following speed comparisons were done on
| the same machinewith the same file containing about 50 columnsx 5000 rows
of
| data and 7 charts of the data.
|
| Time to select 4 charts:
| Excel 2003: 4 seconds
| Excel 2007: 57 seconds
|
| Time to copy the 4 selected charts and paste them into Words 2007:
| Excel 2003: 18 seconds
| Excel 2007: 60 seconds
|
| Finally, when saving the Word file in .doc format with the same graphs
| pasted from the same excel file, here are the file sizes:
| Graphs from Excel 2003: 187K
| Graphs from Excel 2007: 235k
|
| Is there any way to speed up Excel 2007? And why are the Word files
larger?
| This is a problem because we zip up a number of word files and send them
via
| email - the same files with graphs from Excel 2007 are now too large to
send
| in one email.
|
| Thanks,
| John
|

 

[JohnnyG]

Jim,

I felt it was appropriate to post that question here because the difference
in size is due to the graphs being copied from different versions of Excel. I
don't think it's a Word problem, Excel is embedding something different or
additional in the enhanced metafile. The docx format has the same behavior.

John

 

[Nick Hodge]

Johnny

Undoubtedly there are issues with speed in Excel 2007, particularly with
shapes and charts. However there are some things to note

Excel in compatibility mode (Xl97-2003) files will be slower
If you do not have a dual core processor turn off multi-threading
calculation
Upgrade your personal.xls, sheet.xls, book.xls, etc
Unload any add-ins. Particularly those of third parties
Use the xlsb file format for speed of opening/calc
Check any Office plug-ins operating with your AV software
Newly built, new format files will be significantly faster than 'converted
ones'

If you are using .xlsx and docx files for your copy paste, I would be
staggered if the file sizes were bigger as the files are now plain text
(xml) in a zipped archive. (My thought is you are trying to retain
compatibility with older formats)

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
(e-mail address removed)
web: www.nickhodge.co.uk
blog (non-tech): www.nickhodge.co.uk/blog/

 

[JLatham]

I think the bottom line that's probably becoming a not too well kept secret
is that there are problems of varying levels of severity with the new
graphics engine used in the entire line of Office 2007 apps. I've seen
almost exactly the same thing you have; exactly the same thing in general
terms: work with charts in 2007, expect major slowdowns - even on faster
machines than you are running earlier versions of Excel on doing the same
work.

Try all of the recommendations that Nick made. Keep an eye out for Office
2007/Excel 2007 SP1 - but (no inside info here, just gut feeling) I don't
think we're probably going to see that until Thanksgiving (which will give
real meaning to that holiday this year) or later.

 

[JohnnyG]

Nick,

Thanks for the suggestions. i've tried everything you suggest and the speed
improvement, if any, is not noticeable. It is not possible to recreate the
documents as native Excel 2007 documents due to the number of man-hours it
would take.

When using the copy/paste, the graphs are pasted as enhanced metafiles.
Pasting as an Excel object slows Word down so much as to be completely
unusable. The docx files are a tiny bit smaller than the doc files (5% or
so), but in tests using metafiles from Excel 2007 the Word files are about 7
times larger than when using Excel 2003, and using xlsx or xlsb format made
no significant difference to the size of the Word file.

I think I'll just have to wait for an update and use 2003 in the meantime.