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I have a large project with Excel VBA files. Planning on moving from the xlsm file format to the xlsb (Excel binary). When I save the xlsm file as an xlsb I get warning.

It displays "abc.xlsm contains features that this version of Microsoft Excel can't save in another file format. Do you want to continue saving in this format and remove these features?"

Didn't know that xlsm can contain stuff that xlsb can't. Would be curious to know what exactly that is.

Anybody got an idea what the problem could be?

Karsten Jennissen
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  • see [here](https://professor-excel.com/xlsx-xlsm-xlsb-file-types/#XLSX) and [here](https://analystcave.com/excel-working-with-large-excel-files-the-xlsb-format/) for some suggestions. Are you using a 3rd party addin? – AAA Jul 04 '19 at 12:12
  • I had think-cell installed, but only on my Mac Office version. The error message is on both the Mac and the Windows version. Also, the files don't make use of think-cell. – Karsten Jennissen Jul 04 '19 at 12:20
  • Anything that changes the ribbon? I don't think XLSB can support that. –  Jul 04 '19 at 12:21
  • Not that I know of. – Karsten Jennissen Jul 04 '19 at 12:28
  • Only thing I can think is that it isn't code-related. One thought is that if the workbook has been around for a while then it might have been originally saved as an xls. I have seen odd behaviour before and ended up creating a new book and replicating everything to fix it. –  Jul 04 '19 at 15:05
  • @Gareth *Anything that changes the ribbon? I don't think XLSB can support that* Do you have documentation of that? At least one [source](https://www.spreadsheet1.com/how-to-save-as-binary-excel-workbook.html) thinks it is a myth. – Ron Rosenfeld Jul 04 '19 at 17:28
  • @Ron-Rosenfield - No, just what I read in other places. It might depend on the Excel version. –  Jul 04 '19 at 17:36
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    Just for your info, I saved as xlsb, then back to xlsm. After that I used an Excel diff tool on the original xlsm and the now modified xlsm and it did not show any changes, neither sheets, nor code / forms etc. Exactly the same. – Karsten Jennissen Jul 10 '19 at 09:51

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