pivot tables and file size anomaly ( between xls and xlsm)

[tomcatonnet99]

I have two workbooks with about 8 sheets with 3 pivot tables on each sheet ( each sheet has just the one common pivotcache

I created macros for updating the pivot tables and creating additional tabulation of data extracted from the pivot tables to " archive" the entire year to date figures..

Now this is what baffles me:

Original xls has all raw data + pivot cache ( but no macro, tabular data stored) = 3MB size


New xlsm has no raw data and pivot cache only holds current months data + tabular archived data + extensive vba code and few activex objects , a small 208kb pic and file size = 15MB!!

Can anyone explain the huge difference in file size pls?
Is it the compiled code that's adding to file size? Coz the pivot caches are still common and infact all raw data deleted this time!

Thanks

 

[mole999]

save the file in its binary format xlsb that will allow macros. excel changed between 2003 to 2007 so the underlying format is now xlm, also rows went from 16,000 to over a million and columns from 256 to something much bigger

 

[tomcatonnet99]

Can I just saveas .xlsb (?) will it not corrupt my file

 

[mole999]

shouldn't be an issue, 2007 onwards allows that sort of save from opening an xls, test it on a copy