Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications.

Hi everybody - a lot to address here!  :)

First - the memory background.  Excel has a memory limitation of 2GB.  This is not Microsoft or Office only, but all 32-bit applications made by anyone.  So having a 4GB, 8GB, 20GB, however big machine doesn't really matter.  32-bit Excel can only use 2GB of it.  However, starting with Office 2010, you can now get these applications in 64-bit which alllows Excel to use all of the memory available on the machine.  Most users won't need that much memory, but if you're consistently running into the above error it would be something to look at.  (P.S.  Processor speed isn't part of the equation.)

Second - the error message.  Excel is throwing the message, but it may or may not be Excel using all the memory.  As the message states, closing other applications is a possible solution.  Another resolution may be to not referencing entire columns in formulas or defined names (a best practice is to NEVER reference entire columns, especially in the larger grid introduced in 2007).

Third - the resolution.  If it were me constantly or randomly getting the error, I'd take a look at the memory allocation when it happens.  You could try Task Manager, but it only shows the memory being used, Excel (and other apps) "reserve" memory as well.  This is not shown in Task Manager, but can be seen using a different tool called Process Explorer.  It's a free download from Microsoft, and can be found here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

Hope this helps!

I too am having this same problem daily (3-5 times per day). It started in the late summer 2010. It got so bad that the IT department purchased me a new laptop as well as installing MS 2010 on the new system. After a few days it started up again!

It has no rhyme or reason as to why it does it. I can have just Outlook and Excel open with one workbook open. It also happens when trying to open an attachment in Outlook.  It happens with 1 or 10 spreadsheets open. It doesn't matter the size or number of applications currently running; the error message is always the same:

Excel cannot complete this task with available resources. Choose less data or close other applications.

I have a powerful ThinkPad with 4.00 GB of RAM with a processor speed of 2.40 GHz. The only way to solve the problem is save my current work, close Excel and reopen again, and all is fine until the error randomly pops up again.

This is becoming very frustrating (and costly, with my company buying a new system) as I lose productivity and man hours each time I have to shut down and reopen the Excel program again.

I haven’t experienced this error with any other program except Excel. I have worked on a PowerPoint Presentation that was over 100 MB and never received this error message, so I’m convinced this is some kind of Excel bug that MS has yet to figure out.

Why are you not responding to the guys below?  I have been using various versions of Office for years, have relatively small files and i get this message many times a day since last fall. Please give us the courtesy of a proper answer - nothing you suggest works. Did MS do a version change in the fall which messed  us up?

because they don't give a s**t about guys below. I do have the same problem, nobody can help me. Thank you Microsuck oh sorry I meant microsoft [but cannot delete now delete button not working]