Old Excel doesn't work past 65

(Before you shout: this post applies to Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003, but like most of us, you probably have yet to upgrade to the newest Excel, so this affects YOU!)

Every marketer opens customer lists in Excel. Yes you do.

Beware the limitations of this great Swiss army knife – yes, it opens up last week’s leads but …(and it’s a BIG but) … Excel stops working at 65 (thousand that is!).

OK, 65,536 to be precise. Excel can’t open data files with more than 65,536 rows (records) or 256 columns (fields) – but a 256-field schema is unlikely). If you were expecting to see more, you won't.

Open your big customers file in Excel and you will see this warning window - but then the file opens anyway:


(TIP: Ignore this warning at your peril, for you will not have all your records loaded in Excel.)

Remember, more than 65,536 rows (records), or 256 columns (fields) and you can’t use Excel to open and view your list.

Your Swiss army knife just fell apart - so how do you do it?


How to open and view data files containing more than 65,537 records:

With money: buy Excel 2007 which does the trick at last (http://ukireland.trymicrosoftoffice.com/).

Without money: download the free PC software HTML Kit (http://www.chami.com/html-kit/download/) or download the free Mac software BBEdit (http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/BBEdit-Download-1267.html)

Both these free tools open up BIG data files and helpfully show row numbers so you can check your records are all there - after all, why else are you inspecting a data file with a spreadsheet?

If all else fails, use a database (but we all know that is pure voodoo!).