How to Troubleshoot Common Issues in Microsoft Excel

Excel is the most popular spreadsheet in the world. It is also one of the most important software in Microsoft Office. Just like most software of its kind, it is not completely error free. This article focuses on some of the most common Excel errors and how to solve them.

Spreadsheets are vital software in most office settings. Excel being the most common spreadsheet has a few recurring issues that you should know how to repair. Let us delve into some of these issues.

Sluggish Opening

This is when Excel takes an unreasonably long time to launch. In most cases, this happens when you’re opening a very large Excel file with many calculations. It is even more likely when you’re opening the workbook in an updated version of Excel for the first time. Excel must recalculate to open the workbook.

To work around this, you should use the XLSB extension to save large workbooks that you’re planning to open on a different version of Excel. These .xlsb files are saved in binary format, reducing loading time.

This problem can also be caused by saving a workbook using a predefined name. You should confirm that your Excel workbook is not linked to another workbook name or internet link before saving it.

Excel hangs, freezes or is not responding

One of the biggest culprits behind this error is hidden objects. It is very likely for your workbook to have hidden objects especially if you’re copying and pasting some of the data from an external source. To find out if you have any hidden objects in your workbook,

1. Go to the home ribbon of Excel.
2. Select find and select and open selection pane which displays all shapes present in the spreadsheet.
3. Select and delete all the hidden objects.

Another common cause of error is too many formatting styles. This is especially likely for older Excel versions. A workbook with 3500 formatting styles will open, though sluggishly, in Excel 2010 or 2007 but will cause Excel 2003 to freeze. Try not to use too many formatting styles in one workbook.

Excel printing issues

This is seen mostly when you want to print a selected area within the spreadsheet. Excel might create a page break for every single cell. When you try to scale the image, it brings up a margin error. This can be frustrating especially when you’re dealing with an urgent task.

This can either be caused by using a corrupted or outdated printer driver. To solve this, you should try to use a different one, or update the current printer driver.

1. Open the Add printer dialogue box by clicking start (on Windows 7) then select devices and printers.
2. Select Add a Local printer.
3. Click on Use an existing port, then Next.
4. In the Manufacturer list, click on Microsoft.
5. Click Use driver that is currently installed (recommended) then Next.
6. Select set as the default printer.
7. Click finish.

Workbooks won’t open or are missing

This is caused by corruption of Excel files. This corruption can be caused by one of many reasons. Regardless of the cause however, the best solution is to use a good data recovery tool, such as DataNumen Excel Repair. The good thing about modern recovery tools is that you don’t need any expert skills to recover your files.