Working with Microsoft Excel can make your data presentation appear more organized and professional. However, you may sometimes come up with a large Excel spreadsheet file. It may be a problem when you need to save it on Cloud storage, your local drive, or send it to someone else.
What you can do is compress a big file of your Microsoft Excel sheet to decrease or reduce it’s size. It will help you save and send your worksheet files faster as the heavy file becomes lighter.
Ways and Steps to Compress & Decrease Large Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet File Size
If you need to compress a big Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file size, here are the different ways on how to reduce it and save some KBs or MBs. Try to follow each step one at a time and check if it works in reducing the file size of your Excel worksheet.
Solution #1 – Delete Unused Sheets in your Excel File
You may only need one sheet on your current MS Excel file, but you have several unused sheets. You can delete them to reduce the file size.
- Open your Excel spreadsheet.
- At the bottom of the page, go to an unused Sheet.
- Right-click on it.
- Select Delete.
Solution #2 – Clear Unnecessary Formatting
- Go to the Home tab.
- Select Edit.
- Choose Clear Formatting if you want to delete all formatting on your spreadsheet.
- You can also go to Conditional Formatting.
- Select Clear Rules.
- Choose Clear Rules from Selected Cells.
Solution #3 – Compress the Images in your File
- Choose the image in your spreadsheet.
- Navigate to the Picture Format tab.
- Go to the Adjust section.
- Select Compress Pictures.
- Go to the Compression Options.
- Uncheck the box next to Apply only to this picture.
- Check the box next to Delete cropped areas of pictures.
- Go to the Resolution section.
- Select Use default resolution.
Solution #4 – Save your Excel File in Binary Format
- On your Microsoft Excel Sheet, click File.
- Select Save As.
- Choose the Save as type option.
- Click Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb).
- Click Save.
Solution #5 – Set Default Saving Settings to Save in Binary Format
- Open your Microsoft Excel.
- Launch any spreadsheet.
- Click File.
- Select Options.
- Choose Save.
- Navigate to Save workbooks.
- Select Save Files in this Format.
- Choose Excel Binary Workbook.
- Click OK.
Solution #6 – Save your Excel File to a Lower Resolution
- On your spreadsheet, click File.
- Select Options.
- Go to Advanced.
- Navigate to Image Size and Quality.
- Select Discard Editing Data.
- Uncheck the box next to Do not Compress Images in File.
- Go to the Default Resolution setting.
- Set it to 150ppi or lower.
- Click OK.
Solution #7 – Zip your Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet File
- On your File Explorer, go to the folder location of your Excel file.
- Click the New button at the top left corner.
- Select Compressed (zipped) Folder.
- Enter a name for your zipped folder.
- Choose the spreadsheets you want to zip.
- Right-click on your highlighted files.
- Select Cut.
- Double-click your new zipped folder.
- Click the Paste button.
Were you able to reduce the file size of your large Excel spreadsheet? What method did you use? You can tell us in the comment section below.
