Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Viewing Workbook Statistics.

Viewing Workbook Statistics

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 15, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365


7

Excel keeps track of a wide range of statistics about your workbooks. These statistics include such mundane and obvious items as the file name, directory, and title. But you can also find out who last worked on the workbook, what keywords are associated with the workbook, and the total editing time spent on the workbook. (This last statistic is nothing more than the time the workbook has been open.)

If you want to view the statistics for the current workbook, follow these steps if you are using Excel 2010 or a later version:

  1. Display the File tab of the ribbon.
  2. Make sure the Info option is selected at the left side of the dialog box.
  3. Click the Properties link near the right side of the dialog box and then click Advanced Properties. Excel displays the Properties dialog box for your workbook.
  4. Click on the Statistics tab. The dialog box then displays the statistics for your workbook, as already described.
  5. Click on the Summary tab to see other statistics for your workbook.
  6. Click on OK when you are done reviewing the statistics.

If you are using Excel 2007 the steps are slightly different:

  1. Click the Office button, then click Prepare, and finally Properties. Excel displays some of the properties just above the worksheet on the screen.
  2. Click the Document Properties drop-down list and then choose Advanced Properties. Excel displays the workbook's Properties dialog box.
  3. Click on the Statistics tab. The dialog box then displays the statistics for your workbook, as already described.
  4. Click on the Summary tab to see other statistics for your workbook.
  5. Click on OK when you are done reviewing the statistics.
  6. Dismiss the properties above your worksheet by clicking the small X at the upper-right of the properties area.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6290) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Viewing Workbook Statistics.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is five more than 3?

2020-12-06 02:29:29

Sven

Hi Allen,

I wanted to check out the total editing time in Excel 2016 and after I followed the steps you've mentioned in your post it showed me 0 (zero) minutes. It seems that Microsoft left this option out somehow in newer versions. Maybe it's missing some file in registry editor. Could that be possible? Is there still some way to figure out the total editing time nevertheless?

Thank you in advance,

Best regards,

Sven


2017-04-27 17:44:24

Dennis Costello

Beth's Ctrl ~ keyboard shortcut is indeed a piece in the puzzle of finding references to other workbooks where you suspect problems. Other possibilities that you may need to explore are to:
- Use the Edit Links box (on Excel 2007 this is on the Data Ribbon, in the Connections section) to see a list of all the workbooks that this workbook is linked to
- Use Find (Ctrl F) to search for all cells (possibly across all the Worksheets/tabs in this Workbook) that contain the filename of the troublesome external workbook (chances are very good indeed that they'll be formulae and links to that external file); click on the Find All button
- Sort by Formula by clicking on the word Formula on the top of the Find and Replace results.

I find that by following these 3 steps, it's a lot easier to figure out what aspect of the formulae is presenting the problem.

Note that you can also fix some problems related to links to external Workbooks by replacing the formulae containing those references with their corresponding values. This is done with the Break Link button in the Edit Links box. One might wish this function to do the least it can do - for instance, if you have a formula =[other workbook]Sheet1!A1 * 10 and the referenced cell has the value 15, the formula value is of course 150. You might wish in this case that when you Break Link to the other workbook, the formula would be changed to =15 * 10. But that's not what Excel does - it replaces the formula entirely with the corresponding "naked" value 150. This is one of the reasons that most people don't use Break Link except in the most rare of circumstances. But those might be the very circumstances in which Deborah found herself.


2015-10-13 08:08:31

Beth

To view all formulas - Ctrl ~
Use the same to convert back to text.


2015-10-12 18:53:06

Deborah Petty

I have the same issue as Sheldon. In addition, I also get an 'available resources" error message, and then Excel crashes. I searched and found a link to another person's workbook in a formula. I fixed this and it helped, but apparently it was just part of the issue. Is there anyway to find/view all the formulas in a workbook, so I can review for errors/unnecessary links? Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.


2015-10-12 17:30:22

Geoff hummel

Example that i pRomised yesterday.

Sub statistics()
' VarType constants
'vbEmpty 0 Empty (uninitialized)
'vbNull 1 Null (no valid data)
'vbInteger 2 Integer
'vbLong 3 Long integer
'vbSingle 4 Single-precision floating-point number
'vbDouble 5 Double-precision floating-point number
'vbCurrency 6 Currency value
'vbDate 7 Date value
'vbString 8 String
'vbObject 9 Object
'vbError 10 Error value
'vbBoolean 11 Boolean value
'vbVariant 12 Variant (used only with arrays of variants)
'vbDataObject 13 Data access object
'vbDecimal 14 Decimal value
'vbByte 17 Byte value
'vbUserDefinedType 36 Variants that contain user-defined types
'vbArray 8192 Array

Dim dateCell, usedCell, formulaCell, numericCell, stringCell As Integer
Dim aCell As Range

For Each aCell In ActiveSheet.UsedRange
With aCell
If Not aCell = Empty Then usedCell = usedCell + 1
If IsDate(.Text) Then dateCell = dateCell + 1
If .HasFormula Then formulaCell = formulaCell + 1
If VarType(.Value) = vbString Then stringCell = stringCell + 1
If (VarType(.Value) = vbDouble) _
Or (VarType(.Value) = vbInteger) _
Or (VarType(.Value) = vbLong) _
Or (VarType(.Value) = vbSingle) _
Or (VarType(.Value) = vbDecimal) _
Or (VarType(.Value) = vbLong) _
Then
numericCell = numericCell + 1
End If
End With
Next aCell

MsgBox "Used cells = " & usedCell & vbLf & _
"String cells = " & stringCell & vbLf & _
"Formula cells = " & formulaCell & vbLf & _
"Numeric (Double etc) cells = " & numericCell & vbLf & _
"Date cells = " & dateCell

End Sub


2015-10-11 22:29:11

Geoff hummel

VBA can be used to count such things like:
Number of used cells;
cells with specific formatting; cells with formulas;
etc.

I'll post an example when i get home tomorrow.


2015-10-10 08:08:26

sheldon hopkins

Unfortunately the 'statistics' aren't really useful. You can see most of them right clicking the filename in the "file explorer"

I've been running into operational failures with MSO2007 thru MSO2016, announced by a (paraphrased) somethings wrong with the file. Clicking Edit Anyway doesn't always let the file "run".
I have summerized that I have exceeded the maximum allowable formatted cells. I'm sure Excel keeps a number of file statistics that could help us "KNOW" exactly what the "something wrong" is.
I'd like to be able to access these statistics.


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