Forum Discussion
Duplicate Styles warning
I'm using Office 365.
A large spreadsheet I use almost daily recently started displaying the following warning when I open it.
(The warning reads: "DUPLICATE STYLES This workbook has many duplicate styles which can slow performance." There is an adjacent "Remove Duplicates" button.)
The first time I saw it, I clicked the Remove Duplicates button, did my usual work, and saved the file.
I continued to see the same warning every time I opened the file.
I worked with the file for nearly a month when I realized all of my custom Cell Styles had been removed from the spreadsheet. It took hours to roll back to a version of the file from before I first clicked on Remove Duplicates and recreate my work for the month.
The odd thing is that if I open the same file on a different, newer computer, the warning does not appear.
Questions:
- What do you make of the fact that the warning appears on some computers but not others?
- Is there a way to suppress the warning on my computer?
Thanks in advance,
Akira
7 Replies
akira_hirai Apparently one computer has a slightly newer build of Excel than the other, which seems to have newer functionality that checks for this styles issue. The message is caused by Excel detecting that you have many styles that have similar names, like this:
These extraneous styles have been pulled into your file by copying sheets and/or cells from other workbooks and pasting them into the current workbook. If you simply delete those styles, you indeed loose formatting if those styles have been used. The only way to address this is by cleaning up the list of styles manually and re-applying any lost formatting. Tedious, but something you might consider doing. I have a tool that allows deleting of styles that are not used anywhere in the file, that should leave your formatting intact. https://jkp-ads.com/productsremediation.asp
JKPieterse Thanks for the response!
I checked the build on both computers and they are the same: "Version 2408 Build 17928.20114".
When I paste anything into the spreadsheet, I always Paste Special as values or as formulas, so no new styles are being introduced.
The spreadsheet has the same 8 custom cell styles that it has always had, and the styles have very distinct names.
Since this is just a warning rather than an error, is there a way to suppress the warning? Maybe by making a registry edit?
Thanks!
P.S. - I downloaded the trial version of your Add In product but when I tried to open it, Excel said "This file type is not supported in Protected View."
akira_hirai Can you show a screen-shot of your styles dialog for the file in question?
If it is as you describe, click Help, Feedback, I don't like something and tell Microsoft what you think is wrong.
About my add-in not loading: you have to first unblock the file as described here: https://jkp-ads.com/articles/excel-add-ins-fail-to-load.asp
