As Bob says, you haven't given us the information we need to be able to
answer this.
The latest versions of Excel will handle up to a million rows, so you're not
even scratching the surface yet.
Chances are, there are three things that will help:
1) Add memory to that Mac. Eight gigabytes is a nice round number if
you're going to get serious with Excel. Be careful where you buy it: almost
everywhere charges less than Apple will, but prices vary quite widely. Be
aware that Macs are very fussy about their memory, and may refuse to use
memory that does not match their specification exactly, so try to get it
from a shop that knows Macs well, like
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/
2) Chances are that you are using Page Layout View and have an HP printer.
Page Layout view is for making the final touches and tweaks before printing,
but it is extremely expensive on CPU time. If you want to get work done,
work in Normal View. There's a bug in the current HP Printer Drivers that
causes Excel to re-create the whole display once for each cell. That will
get the fans wailing
Work in Normal View until HP releases new drivers.
3) Excel can save a spreadsheet in one of three file formats: .xls, .xlsx
and .xlsb. XLS will be very slow because Excel has to convert it on the way
in, and convert it again on each save. .XLSX is a plain text format that
provides full compatibility with other programs, but requires a little more
work to interpret. .XLSB is a binary format that was designed to speed
performance with large data sets. It won't be any quicker with small
spreadsheets (and other programs can't read it) but it's a lot faster with
big ones.
Now, if you come back saying you're not using the latest version, then I
have just wasted my time typing all that out, and I *will* think bad
thoughts about you!!
Hope this helps
As the subject suggests, I have a somewhat large spreadsheet - 11,000
data entries, but only about 15 columns. This data set seems to be too
much for my MAC to handle, as it struggles to put figures together and
eventually is unresponsive requiring a force quit. However, on a PC
there are no problems. The data set and all functions seem to operate
normally.
Anyone have an idea for me? I am clueless on this one.
--
This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:
[email protected]