scrolling speed excel with filters

I don't think this is a 32 vs 64 bit issue. Excel for Windows 32 and 64 bit editions are both without this problem. I think it's something else that isn't optimized properly. There is an optimization feature Excel for Windows but not the Mac Microsoft sometimes calls "velocity engine" or something like that, and maybe that's what we need in Excel for Mac. But it really doesn't matter to us users what the cause of the problem is. What matters is that we let Microsoft know we want it fixed.

Jim, I will "generalize" one of my spreadsheets for you this week.

I have a dumb follow up question about something I read (and remember, I am an end user so I do not understand the nuances from a technical perspective):

Is the problem with filters in Mac Excel because Mac Office 2011 is a 32-bit program?

In " Microsoft reveals Office for Mac 2011 will be 32-bit only," published 6/9/10* (yes - four years ago), the author wrote,

Office for Mac 2011 will only be available as a 32-bit product because it hasn't completely transitioned to Cocoa for Mac OS X. ...  the biggest advantage in having a 64-bit application is the larger memory capacity.   ...  Jake Hoelter, product unit manager with MacBU said ... " Where 64-bit can make a difference for people working with huge amounts of data, such as those creating very large Excel files with data in millions of cells , or PowerPoint presentations with thousands of high resolution images."

1. The annual spreadsheet I have slug speed issues with is 65000 lines by 33 columns, or 2,105,000 cells.
2. The PC I had before my MacBook Pro was running Office 2013 64-bit, to the best of my knowledge. NOTE: I have to admit, I have used the same multi-million cell spreadsheet each year for the last seven years -- it's an annual enrollment report -- and on the last two PC laptops, I had no sluggish-when-filtering issues ... and six years ago, I must have been running a 32-bit Office product. This is why my question may be of no value. Still I had to ask the question.

I see similar discussion re Excel and PCs. So, maybe there is something to 64-bit v. 32-bit and/or to Microsoft fully embracing Cocoa (Who comes up with these names!?).  

In "How to Choose Between the 32-bit and 64-bit Versions of Office [for Windows]" published more recently (8/19/13 - OK still a year old), Jim Tanous wrote**, 

In the early days of 64-bit versions of Windows, software compatibility issues caused headaches for all but the most experienced users. Software and drivers alike had to be updated to support the 64-bit architecture, and it was widely recommended that users stick to the 32-bit variety of Microsoft’s operating system.

That all changed with Windows 7. Built-in emulation for 32-bit software in a 64-bit environment and widespread driver support made the 64-bit version of Windows a seamless experience for most users. This was important because a 64-bit version of Windows was required to access more than 3 GB of system RAM. As a result, most Windows users on modern PCs now run the 64-bit version of Windows 7 or 8. But there’s still one application you should run in 32-bit mode: Office.

 Microsoft Office 2010 and 2013 come in both 32- and 64-bit varieties, and most licenses give users the choice of which one to install. Those still running 32-bit versions of Windows will be limited to 32-bit Office, but 64-bit Windows users may be tempted to choose 64-bit Office. For most users, this is not recommended.

The 64-bit versions of Office 2010 and 2013 do indeed have a potentially important benefit: they allow users to work with extremely large Excel spreadsheets and Project databases. The 32-bit version places hard caps on the size of these items at 2 GB (a total virtual address space which includes the file itself, the application, and any running add-ins). There are no practical limits on file size with the 64-bit version, allowing for enormous spreadsheets and databases. While this is a crucial factor for a very few expert Office users (likely in a large enterprise setting), most users won’t come anywhere near the file size limits imposed by the 32-bit version.

*appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/09/microsoft_reveals_office_for_mac_2011_will_be_32_bit_only

** www.tekrevue.com/tip/how-to-choose-between-the-32-bit-and-64-bit-versions-of-office/

I have been persuaded that this is indeed a problem with Excel on the Mac, and that it needs to be resolved.

Excel 2011 is a finished product. I do not expect any further improvements in Excel 2011. I do hope we can get Microsoft to realize that this is a show stopper and that it must be fixed in the next release of Excel for Mac. 

I think the best way to do this is to put as many solid examples on line (sans personal or proprietary information). It seems to be very important to many, so please provide examples where sensitive data has been replaced with generic data. Place examples into OneDrive, DropBox or other share service and provide the links both here and in feedback to Microsoft. Use Excel’s Help menu and choose Send Feedback to get your links to Microsoft along with your suggestion that they not embarass themselves by not fixing this in the next releease.

I originally reported on this problem a while ago when I was using a late 2010 vintage MacBook Air.  Similar to James, the filtered spreadsheet that had severe scrolling issues on Excel for Mac, had no issues on Open Office.  I used Open Office wherever I could however there are a few incompatibilities with Excel that caused me some problems.

I have recently upgraded to a 13" MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and 2.8GHz Core i7 CPU.  Lots of performance here but I still have the same scrolling problems on filtered spreadsheets.  I have now completely abandoned Excel for Mac because this single issue is so serious and crippling that I cannot use this application for anything but the simplest spreadsheets.  (By the way, I use Word and Power Point for Mac extensively and have no performance or compatibility issues.)

For my business, I have no choice but to run large, complex, filtered spreadsheets. As a solution, I have installed Parallels on my MBP and run a Win7 virtual machine and MSOffice.  The same filtered spreadsheets that were problematic on Excel for Mac are no longer a problem running on the Win7 VM.  As far as I am concerned, hardware performance is not the issue and that there is something fundamental in how Excel for Mac handles scrolling.

Where I disagree with James is whether or not this problem can be resolved.  If this was a persistent issue on Excel/Win, then Microsoft would have fixed it long ago or they would not have a product to sell today. Microsoft has all the resources and technical skill necessary to resolve this issue - it would appear to me that they lack the motivation to support this group of customers.  What Microsoft has done successfully is extracted yet another Windows and MS Office license fee from me!