User FAQs

If you have a question, please send it to us.

1) Is there any Microsoft documentation for Excel ?

link - support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel 

2) Is there a forum for questions about Excel ?
Post your questions in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

link - learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/tags/379/m365-office-office-excel-business-platform-windows 

There is also a forum on techcommunity.

link - techcommunity.microsoft.com/category/microsoft365/discussions/excelgeneral 

There are also two very popular independent forums.

link - excelforum.com 
link - mrexcel.com/board/ 

3) What is the difference between the file extensions '.xls' and '.xlsx' ?
.xls - Excel 97-2003 uses a Binary (BIFF8) file format.
.xlsx - Excel 2007-Excel 365 uses an XML based default file format.

4) What is the difference between the file extensions '.xlsx' and '.xlsm' ?
.xlsx - Excel 2007-Excel 365 uses an XML based default file format.
.xlsm - Excel 2007-Excel 365 uses an XML based file format that can contain macros.

5) What is the '.xlsb' file format ?
This is a binary based file format that can contain macros but not ribbon customisations.

6) Are there any advantages or disadvantages to saving a workbook with the '.xlsb' file extension ?
*) File size might be smaller
*) Read from and Write to is faster
*) Formulas larger than 8192 characters can be saved
*) The individual files contained in the xml zip package are compressed binary files and not readable xml.
*) Power Query cannot read data saved in an XLSB workbook.

7) Is there a way to force Excel to always use manual calculation ?
Yes. Create an Excel template the filename Book.xltx and save it in one of the startup folders.

8) Is there a way to close all my open workbooks at once without having to close them one at a time ?
Yes. Hold down Shift and click on the X (cross) in the top right corner of one of the open workbooks (or windows).

9) What is the largest Excel file you can have ?
Either for a single workbook or a combination of open workbooks.
32 Bit - Excel 2013 / 2016 - 2 GB of memory.
64 Bit - Excel 2013 / 2016 - no hard limit. Workbook size is limited only by available memory and system resources.

10) What changes could you make to reduce the file size of a workbook ?
*) Check the last used cell on each worksheet and delete any redundant blank rows and columns.
*) Check for hidden worksheets and remove out of date sheets.
*) Compress or remove images and pictures.
*) Reduce the size of pivot tables.
*) Optimise formulas and remove array formulas.
*) Remove any unnecessary formatting and use consistent formatting across worksheets.
*) Remove conditional formatting.

11) Why is my workbook recalculating before saving ?
When the calculation is set to Manual, the default setting is to automatically recalculate before the file is saved.
This can be changed on the Options Formulas tab

12) What are the differences between OneDrive and SharePoint ?
OneDrive is your personal cloud storage (although you can still share files)
SharePoint is your collaborative cloud storage (can include files from Outlook, Teams and Yammer)

13) What is the difference between the active workbook and the current workbook ?
Active workbook is the workbook the user has selected (the one "on top").
Current workbook is the workbook containing the code or function that is executing.
They are often the same, but they can be different, especially when using automation.

14) What are the binary format BIFF5, BIFF8 and BIFF12 ?
BIFF5 was the name of the original Excel binary format used in Excel 95. It used the file extension ".xls".
BIFF8 was the name of the improved Excel binary format used in Excel 97-2003. It used the file extension ".xls".
BIFF12 is the name of the latest Excel binary format used in Excel 2007-Excel 365. This has the file extension ".xlsb".

15) How many different versions of Excel have there been ?