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Organize your kitchen with this Free Weekly Menu Plan.  Use it to plan your next grocery shopping excursion and quickly realize the benefits.  Download the Excel version and modify to fit your needs or download the PDF version, print and go!


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There are some simple things you can do in order to reduce the size of a large Excel file and speed up operation.  Below are some quick and easy steps to reduce Excel file size. (Note, before you begin it's a good idea to have a backup of your file just encase something goes wrong).

1.      File Type - If you're using Excel 2007 or later, ensure your file is saved as .xlsx – not in Excel 97-2003.  If that doesn't cut enough into the size of your file save it as an Excel Binary Worksheet (.xlsb).  I just had a file that was 12.6 MB in .xlsx cut to 6.72 MB when saved as .xlsb.

The following will need to be done on each tab:

2.      Check Unused Cells – frequently "blank" cells aren't really blank and need to be deleted.  You can check for the "last used cell" in your workbook by pushing Ctrl + End, this will take you to the last used cell.  If that's not the end of your cells with data then you can clean up those unused cells.  To do this:

a.       Select the first blank column, hold down Ctrl + Shift and push the right arrow (this will highlight all columns).  Then, right click and select delete.  Do the same for rows; go to the first row after your data, select it, hold down Ctrl + Shift and push the down arrow.  Rick click and delete.

b.      You can also use the Go to Special Function.  Press F5 > Special, then select "Blanks"; after all blanks are selected select "Clear All" from the Editing tool bar under the Home Ribbon.

3.      Remove Formatting – Unnecessary formatting can cause a file to be unnecessarily large.  Select all (Ctrl + a) and the select "Clear Formats" from the Editing tool bar under the Home Ribbon.

4.      Clean Up Formulas – To many formulas will cause Excel to get bogged down, try the following:

a.       Set your Excel Options so that workbook calculation is manual.  File > Excel Options > Formulas > Manual.

b.      Review your formulas to ensure you don't have a lot of unnecessary formulas, or formulas that are considered volatile (i.e., always recalculated, even when precedents remain unchanged).  Volatile functions are Randbetween( ), Today ( ), Offset ( ), Index ( ), Info ( ) etc.

Save after each step to see if the file size is improving and ensure there is still a need to continue to improve file size.

 
 
Two To Do List templates have been posted.  Select from an electronic version with dynamic features or keep it simple with our printable option. These To Do Lists are easy to customize to fit your unique circumstances.  

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Quickly compare your top 3 home choices, side by side, with this free home comparison checklist. This checklist is free to download, modify it to fit your needs.  Several categories included, the picture above shows just 1 of 2 pages.  Includes the ability to rank items of import.


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