Excel Help

Question

I have a tab in an Excel workbook that I want to use the Move or copy function (by right clicking on the tab itself) to put it in another workbook, but I keep getting the following error:

"Excel cannot insert sheets into the destination workbook, because it contains fewer rows and columns than the source workbook.  To move or copy the data to the destination workbook, you can select the data, and then use the Copy and Paste commands to insert it into the sheets of another workbook."

If I follow the advice and use the copy paste commands instead it loses the filters and other formatting that I have done.  I can use the copy/move command just fine when I move it to a new workbook.  What could be causing this?  Please help.

Answer 1

Hi Jennifer,

I have a tab in an Excel workbook that I want to use the Move or copy function (by right clicking on the tab itself) to put it in another workbook, but I keep getting the following error:

"Excel cannot insert sheets into the destination workbook, because it contains fewer rows and columns than the source workbook.  To move or copy the data to the destination workbook, you can select the data, and then use the Copy and Paste commands to insert it into the sheets of another workbook."

If I follow the advice and use the copy paste commands instead it loses the filters and other formatting that I have done.  I can use the copy/move command just fine when I move it to a new workbook.  What could be causing this?  Please help.

 I suspect that the destination workbook is in the pre-Excel 2007 xls  format  while the source workbook is in xlsx or xlsm format. 

If this were the case, the sheets of the destination workbook would be limited to 65536 rows, whereas the sheets of the source workbook would have 1048576 rows.

Try, therefore, saving the destination workbook in xlsx format and then copy/move the required sheet. If necessary, after copying the sheet,  re-save the destination workbook in xls format.

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Regards,

Norman

Answer 2

Thank you so much Norman, we will give that a try!

Answer 3

Hi Norman,

So, I tried your suggestion, but now I am getting a new error when I try to do the move/copy from the tab:

Any advice on this one?

Answer 4

Hi Jennifer,

So, I tried your suggestion, but now I am getting a new error when I try to do the move/copy from the tab:

Any advice on this one?

Ok, you have successfully resolved the first problem which related to the different sheet sizes of worksheets in pre Excel 2007 and later versions. 

However, you did not disclose the fact that you are using the shared workbook feature. Your new problem illustrates just one of the numerous limitations of shared workbooks. To move the sheet, perhaps consider first unsharing the workbook.

Personally, the restrictions imposed on shared workbooks are such as to have discouraged me from ever using this functionality. In this connection, note that Microsoft has introduced a new, much better implementation of joint working or, in their parlance, co-authoring. In this connection. see:

Collaborate on Excel workbooks at the same time with co-authoring

and****

Document collaboration and co-authoring

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Regards,

Norman

Answer 5

Thank you, Norman!