Very Slow Auto-Filter

[ken]

I am currently using a G4 12" powerbook 1.33GHZ and running excel in
microsoft office 2004, i am wondering how come it takes me around 1 to
2 minutes to auto-filter some data from just a 26MB file. I used the
very same file on a PC running on Windows XP and the auto-filter was so
fast it took only 1 to 2 seconds to filter.

I tried installing my old microsoft office v.10, and ran the very same
file, the auto-filter was very slow just the same.

Is there a patch i could download to correct the problem?

Your assistance on this matter will be highly appreciated.

Thanks guys!

Ken

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I am currently using a G4 12" powerbook 1.33GHZ and running excel in
microsoft office 2004, i am wondering how come it takes me around 1 to
2 minutes to auto-filter some data from just a 26MB file. I used the
very same file on a PC running on Windows XP and the auto-filter was so
fast it took only 1 to 2 seconds to filter.

"Just" a 26MB file? That's a pretty hefty file. How much RAM do you have
in your machine? That 26MB expands significantly in RAM, especially when
creating significant numbers of internal arrays (which is what
autofilter uses internally), so you're undoubtedly running into the need
for pageouts of virtual memory. That will slow XL down to a crawl.

In addition, XL *is* far more optimized in Windows to work faster with
arrays. While a few functions in XL04 are faster than the WinXL
counterparts, most are not. Even with a machine with 2GB of RAM, I've
seen sorts that take 2 seconds in WinXL take 30 or 40 seconds in XL04.

I tried installing my old microsoft office v.10, and ran the very same
file, the auto-filter was very slow just the same.

Yup. Same problem, same outcome, though I've found that XL04 is a bit
faster in most functions.

Is there a patch i could download to correct the problem?

No. Installing more memory probably is the only way to speed things up.

 

[ken]

Thank you so much for your reply.

I actually have 1GB ram on my powerbook. It's really sad to know that
most of my files would auto-filter very much faster on a PC, and to
think it only has only has 256MB ram on it. Everytime I run my file, I
make sure that all the other softwares are turned off to ensure that my
entire system is dedicated to that single file.

Its a hard realization that owning a mac can have it's downside too,
especially with such a common software in Excel. I pray and hope that
Microsoft would do something about it.

Anyway, thanks again for your time.