Excel spreadsheet has grown larger and slower each year, hangs up with every new entry

Jennifer_Ebelhar Here are my findings, so others might learn:

On each sheet there are many, many tiny drawing objects, mostly invisible:

sht, shape count

JAN 2748
FEB 5761
MAR 10831
APR 35689
MAY 17955
JUN 16793
JUL 17453
AUG 13812
SEP 25634
OCT 37359
NOV 52986
DEC 66737

Since Excel still tries to draw all of them when a sheet is activated, the file is dreadfully slow.

To get rid of them, follow these steps:

1. Select a worksheet
2. Press the F5 function key
3. Click "Special"
4. Select "Objects", click OK
5. Hit the Del key on your keyboard (will take a while!)
6. Select next sheet, repeat from step 2

These shapes probably came into your sheets by copying and pasting information from sources outside of Excel. Especially web pages are renown for causing this. Next time you paste something from outside of Excel, use Paste Special and have it paste just text.

I tried to do this on a couple of sheets, but Excel finds this very hard. Perhaps your best bet is to recreate the workbook. Create a new file with the same sheet tabs. Then open both the old and the new copy. Copy all cells from each sheet of the old file, select the sheet in the new file and do a paste special, formulas and a paste special formats. That should give you a pristine new file without the shapes.