Reducing Unnecessarily Large-size Sheets

Problem: I have exported a small table from ERP software to Excel, however, the resulting Excel file is too big in size. (in megabytes)


Solution: Sometimes when exporting data from another system into Excel, the sheet treats empty rows/columns as if they contained data, resulting in an unnecessarily large file sizes, while actual size given the real data in the sheet should be much smaller. This increases the processing time of even the simplest operations such as saving the sheet.
If you face such symptoms, try the following:

1.       On the concerned sheet, press CTRL + END to go to the last cell that Excel considers containing data. If you notice that the cell goes far away from where the real data ends, then it means that there are redundant rows/columns that need to be deleted.
2.       Select all rows (or columns if the cell is horizontally far away) backwards to the end of the real data rows/columns, and press CTRL + - to delete those rows/columns, then save the sheet.
3.       With that you have reduced the file size. To verify, you can do either of the following:
a.       Check the file size after saving to see if it has become smaller, usually in kilobytes.
b.      Press CTRL + END on the sheet to see the last cell that Excel considers containing data, it should be near the end of the real data.
c.       Check the scroll bar (to the right if the issue was with rows, and down if the issue was with columns), this is how it should look like:

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