Sheet Size

JamesR

JGL,

Have you tried to access the sheet from a machine outside of your organisation, i.e. from home.  This should help to diagnose if the problem is with your Office systems, network etc.

 

JGL

JamesR,

I've been working in Smartsheet from home using Chrome this morning and so far haven't experienced any of the issues I mentioned before, even with large files. 

 

I emailed my IT department a request to install Chrome and/or adjust the settings in Explorer to make it behave better and, as expected, it was denied. This makes using Smartsheet in my enterprise troublesome since every user would have to make manual adjustments to their Explorer TLS and Add-On settings every time they reboot their PC. PITA! I'm going to appeal this, but give the anal nature of our IT dept, I'm not confident I will get anywhere with them. 

JamesR

Perhaps take it to your line manger rather than IT direct, but as a Business case with documented evidence of the Cost and Benifits, i.e. what is it costing the organisation in employee time (money) against what they will save if they make the changes.  Some, not all IT departments have a default No to requests to see if they come back with more conviction as they are usually overstreched.  When presented as a business case it is harder to say no.

 

Good luck

pflynn

Having just come across to Smart Sheet, mainly for the web side, but also to try to combine the Spread sheet, and the the projects sheets together, I have been reading these page size threads with a fare amount of interest.

My normal Spreadsheets are usually about 400 columns and 2000 rows, with about 50 sheets all colminating with a single TOP SHEET.

The MS Project file is also usually huge, and printed in different styles to assist in department needs.

So page formats and sheet interaction is essential I feel for myself.

Yes I pre Plan, but usually starting with an existing sheet and buidling on that. 

JGL

JamesR,

One would think, as the Division VP, that I'd get some love on this topic without having to involve my boss, who oversees the IT department directly. Alas, we are a Japanese owned company that is extremely conservative when it comes to technology. The mere thought of deploying something as strange and dangerous as Chrome strikes mortal terror into the hearts of the IT overlords. I can't even get them to alter the IE settings so that TLS 1.1 and 1.2 are the default settings. Everyone that uses SS would have to go in and click those boxes on every reboot.

 

But, it is worth a try using the logic you suggested.

JGL

Finally got a reply from my IT department...

 

"from our investigation we found that the PC specs, ram and bit version of the OS, has a large impact on the performance of Smart Sheet.  The specs are something we are unable to change.  Due to network security we are unable to install other web browsers other than Internet Explorer."

 

So, basically, I'm SOL until we upgrade from these craptops with 32-bit OS and 4.00 GB of RAM. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else has an IT department as behind the times as ours...

Jim Hook

John, I'm experiencing your problem with the cell references not being correctly updated when rows are moved in sheets with lots of formulas and then the sheet is saved. My problem sheets can only be edited by myself but there are multiple viewers so collaboration should not be a problem. My main frustration is that Smartsheet cannot give me any guidelines as to the size of the sheet, number of formlas, etc. that causes the problems.

Jeremy Michels

The reason that you cant get that spec Jim is that there are two many variables. I have some very large and complex sheets and we have to constantly maintain the size. Here are the perameters that I have found work very well. If you have more than a 1000 rows and more than 20 columns and you have more than ten formulas in those columns. You will have a big issue. Keep it less than this and create a way to archive the completed rows so that you can keep you sheet less than this. For peak preformance I keep the sheet less than 850 rows and less than 20 columns. I can then do links and formulas to my hearts content. The one best practice we have in place is to copy the sheet when we are doing large moves and or adjustments so that we have a backup ready to go if we have an issue. 

Jim Hook

Thanks for your advice Jeremy. I split my problem sheets in two so they are now less than 800 rows, still 32 columns and with about 11K formulas. After doing that they seem stable during saves after moving rows around and I verified that no formulas were corrupted by comparing before/after with a large Excel sheet.  I already do archiving like you suggested and have found ways to minimize the number of formulas. The way it has been explained to me is that initiating a save before the formula engine is finished updating the cell references after a row move causes it to be saved with some updates not completed. it was suggested that I wait 10 - 30 seconds after moving a row before saving the sheet. I'm going to generate a dummy sheet that illustrates the problem and they will take a look at improving things. Maybe they can make the save function wait until the formula engine has finished. Making a copy before large moves is a good idea but the copy loses it's outgoing links if there are any.

Jeremy Michels

Jim,

 

One area that also effects this for these kind of sheets is if others are working in reports or the sheet itself at the same time. The sheets dont get refreshed and when things are moved the saves dont get acknowledged. It is critical to have the sheets get refreshed as often as the sheet needs. I am sure you are aware of this need. I just wanted to mention it for the rest that are reading. 

Jim Hook

Fortunately the two large sheets are essentially reports that all users, other than myself, are only viewers on so the collaboration problem is not an issue.