See why your Excel file didn’t reduce (macOS)
If your Excel file is still too big then it is likely it contains media that NXPowerLite cannot compress. Whatever it is, you will find instructions for finding the culprit and some options for fixing it below.
Might it be small already?
Sizes are listed in KB in NXPowerLite, anything below 1,000 KB (1 MB) is pretty small and should be easily transferred by email. Most email limits have risen to > 5 - 10 MB even in restricted scenarios, although there are still some areas where the limits are much tighter.
Is it still too large for your needs?
First, you need to find out what content is making your file big by looking at a breakdown of content inside a file. Unlike Windows, macOS doesn’t have many app or tool options in this regard, but the next section explains a method we like to use to see inside your XLSX file.
How to look inside XLSX files with BetterZip Quick Look
We’ve taken a look at many archive apps for macOS and have found a free Quick Look extension that enables you to see the breakdown of the content within an Excel file. To prepare your macOS for seeing your XLSX content, follow our easy 3-step guide to installing the BetterZip Quick Look extension.
Once BetterZip Quick Look extension is working take a copy of your XLSX file and rename the file adding ‘.zip’. Now select the file in Finder and press the spacebar to start Quick Look.
You will see a folder treeview, where you can browse through the folders to see where the large content is lurking. The folders are named for the content they contain and should be pretty clear.
In the following example, the bulk of the size is located in the worksheets and pivotTables folders.
Jump into a folder to see what individual files are causing the size problem.
How to manually compress large media
Once you’ve established exactly what content you still need to reduce inside your file, the links below will take you to our latest advice for fixing each type of media.
Pivot Cache
If your pivotCache folder is very large, then follow these instructions to clear the pivot table cache.
Embeddings
Read here for how to compress embedded objects in Excel.
External Links
Learn how to break links to reduce file size.
Worksheets
If the worksheets contain lots of data then see how to save in the XLSB format to reduce size.
If you come across any other content that you are struggling to reduce in your file, please contact us. We’d love to see it, and maybe we might be able to help too.