open and save on different threads

Opening a new workbook should in no way interfere with editing a different workbook which is already open.

Saving a workbook should in no way interfere with editing a different workbook which is already open.

With large workbooks, opening and saving means that instance of Excel running is completely tied-up until the file operation completes, but it shouldn't have to be this way.

Thanks for reading.

Is there a question here or just a comment?

I think this is better in XL2007 as it has a muliti-threading calculation engine which should speed things up and the xlsb file format is specially optimised for speed of opening and saving, so suspect there is something happening there. It does howver need multiple or multi-cored single processors.

If there is another question I don't see in here, post back

Thanks Nick for reading.  I will attempt to explain the case I often run into.

I frequently have one large workbook open and several smaller workbooks open in the same instance of Excel.  If I save the large workbook, this instance of Excel is for all intents and purposes completely blocked from new user input.  For example, I cannot switch to another open workbook and edit it while the large workbook finishes saving in the background.  Likewise, if I am editing in Excel and start opening another large worksheet, Excel ui is blocked while opening and I am forced to wait rather than continue editing in the previously open workbook.  Most workbooks are small enough that this file access UI blocking is of little consequence.  But when you get into the 30 MB and greater range of .xlsm documents, the wait can really add up when it happens dozens of times a day.  My workaround is to keep writing in notepad and then paste my new text into Excel once it is unblocked.

Obviously this unblocked file access is kind of achievable if I launch Excel as two separate processes, but doing so breaks another common process in my workflow.  (copy discontiguous selections and paste values into a different workbook - works inside a single Excel instance, but not between separate instances of Excel)

So in the form of a question: Could Excel be made to perform open and save operations in the background, thereby not blocking the ui for any other presently open workbooks?

I suppose this request could be extended to cover calculation.  If a large workbook is calculating, could Excel be made to allow editing in other open workbooks while the calculating workbook finishes up in the background?

thanks for the support

-jason

Jason

Would you like to come and work for me (you sound very productive , my staff use it as an opportunity to surf facebook or the like )

Looking at your detailed description I guess you are not going to win as even the multi threading is using the same instance and therefore needs to finish before other things can be done.

Now, my suggestion, on crucial, large workbooks would be to examine what you are doing and seeing if there is a better way to do stuff in the workbook, avoiding slow functions, using array formulae, etc, etc. This would mean your 'wait' could be significantly reduced.

The person I have seen do the most with speed in Excel is Charles Williams at http://www.decisionmodels.com/

He has some free stuff on his websites and offers some paid for documents and services, but I have seen simple calculations drop from many seconds to fractions of a second by optimising stuff

Hope it helps