Recently I have noticed when I select cells and hit the delete button,
Excel takes a long time to process and locks up for a time. I noticed
it first in macros that select all cells in a workbook and delete. I
recently had a workbook that had gotten large despite having mainly
"blank" cells. I deleted the cells and it froze for 30 seconds or so.
Any ideas of what could cause this? Also any suggestions on the best
way to delete unwanted cells?

I am using:
Excel 2003
WindowsXP Profesional


Thanks - Michael

Hi Michael -

I've noticed this issue in workbooks where I have 'change event'
macros .... I think the macro fires EVERY time a cell changes and even
though you're deleting a range of cells, the macro may be firing for
every cell in that range. In other words, if you select a range that
is 5rows x 5columns, the macro doesn't fire once, but rather 25
times ...

On your last question .... are you truly deleting cells or just
deleting the contents? Do you want to do this via macro or ???

//ray

"mburkett" wrote in message
...
Recently I have noticed when I select cells and hit the delete button,
Excel takes a long time to process and locks up for a time. I noticed
it first in macros that select all cells in a workbook and delete. I
recently had a workbook that had gotten large despite having mainly
"blank" cells. I deleted the cells and it froze for 30 seconds or so.
Any ideas of what could cause this? Also any suggestions on the best
way to delete unwanted cells?

I am using:
Excel 2003
WindowsXP Profesional


Thanks - Michael

Using the Delete key does not delete the cells. It clears the cell contents.

Use CTRL+END to take you to what Excel thinks of as the last used cell. If
this is way beyond the area you really use, delete (using Delete from a
menu, NOT the Delete key) all rows below, and all columns to the right, of
the area you use at least as far as Excel's "last used cell". Save the
workbook. Repeat CTRL+END to check that Excel now has a reasonable idea of
what the last used cell is. Repeat for each worksheet in turn. Does this
make your file size smaller and recalculate time shorter?