How to Compress Excel File More than 100MB (7 Useful Ways)

Method 1 – Compress an Excel File Larger than 100 MB to ZIP/RAR

Right-click on the Excel file.
Choose Add to archive.

An Archive name and parameters window will appear.
Go to General and select RAR or ZIP in the Active format. We have selected RAR.
Click OK.

Disclaimer: We used WinRAR software as an example.

Method 2 – Using the Excel Binary Format for Saving to Compress an Excel File Larger than 100 MB

Go to File.

Select Save As.
Choose file type as Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb).
Click Browse and put the file in your local storage.

An Excel Binary Workbook is created and the size is decreased from 24KB to 20KB.

Method 3 – Clearing Blank Cells to Reduce Excel File Size

To clear blank cells, click Ctrl + Shift + ↓ + →. The arrow signs indicate where we need to put our command.

Go to Home and select Editing.
Choose Clear and click Clear All.
All the blank cells will be cleared.

Additionally, we can do this by following another way.

Go to Home and select Editing.
Choose Find & Select and pick Go to Special.

The Go to Special window will appear.
Select Blanks and click OK.

Method 4 – Reducing the Number of Worksheets to Compress an Excel File

If you have any worksheets with data that are not being used or any formula in those worksheets that are not useful, then just delete the worksheets. Additional worksheets just make the size of the Excel file bigger and deleting those unnecessary worksheets reduces the size a lot.

Method 5 – Saving Pictures at a Lower Resolution

Go to File.

Choose Options.

An Excel Options window will appear.
Go to Advanced.
Check Discard Editing Data in the Image Size and Quality. Make sure that Do not Compress Images in file is unchecked.
In the Default Resolution option, choose 150 ppi or lower. In most cases, we don’t need the resolution to be higher than that.

Method 6 – Compressing Pictures

We can compress the pictures in an Excel file and it will also reduce the size of the file a lot.

Click on the picture and go to Picture Format.
Select Compress Pictures.

The Compress Pictures window will appear.
In the Compression options, mark Delete cropped areas of pictures. If you need to compress only the selected picture, select Apply only to this picture. But if you need to compress all the pictures in the file, deselect this option.
In the Resolution box, select Use default resolution and click OK.