I regularly build Excel workbooks exceeding 50 meg in size, only part of
which is the table sheet whose size can be 50,000+ rows by 40+ columns.  I
have never seen a problem with excel related solely to the size of the
workbook, other than speed.

The only things I can think of regarding the original question, is sharing
and inserting.  If you share the workbook, or if you enable 'track changes'
on the Tools menu, excel does a lot of stuff that effects file size.  Or,
I'm guessing you have a link to an external picture, or other embedded data
in your workbook. When you protect the workbook, Excel may save the external
data with the workbook. The picture, or whatever, doesn't compress very
well.
Tom Turak

-----Original Message-----
From: Yakymakha L. Olexandr [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 12:46 AM

>I have a small problem with a growing Excel file. The file is about
>3.3 MB and when I ZIP it, it goes to about 495 kB. However, if I hide
>some columns and protect the work sheet, it only ZIPs to 2.8 mB.
>There shouldn't be that much code to enable the hiding and
>protection, so does anyone have any clues as to what is going on? I
>would expect the ZIPed file to be 600 to 700 kB at most.

 From my experience I know that Excel is working unstable when file
 size grows about 1MB (~1000 rows & ~20 columns). It's behaviour is
 unpredictable. Therefore, I try don't  exceed this barrier. The same
 thinks happen for Access at 100Mb barrier.

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