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XL: Workbooks Containing User Forms Take Excessively Long Time to Save Across WAN Connections

Article ID: 254733 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q254733

SYMPTOMS

When you save Excel workbooks that contain user forms, it typically takes about one minute to save to the local computer or within the local area network (LAN). When you save the same workbooks over a wide area network (WAN), it can take an excessive amount of time.

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CAUSE

When Excel saves a user form, it writes out each control separately, and waits for an acknowledgement from the network before proceeding to the next control. The amount of time it takes to save is relative to the number of controls and user forms, and the network and remote drive latency.

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WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs.
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To work around this problem, the following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros copy the document to the local drive, and then share that local copy back to the WAN.

To implement the workaround, follow these steps:

Start Excel and open the VBA editor by pressing ALT+F11.
On the Insert menu, click Module.

Type the following code in the new module:

Option Explicit
Private Const TEMPFILE As String = "c:\dlocal.xls" 
'Note, ensure the file path is valid.

Private Const TEMPFILE2 As String = "c:\dlocal2.xls" 
'Note, ensure the file path is valid.

Private strOriginalName As String
Public bSaving As Boolean

Public Sub SaveLocalThenCopy()
    Dim wbk As Workbook, wbk2 As Workbook
    Set wbk = ThisWorkbook
    If UCase(ThisWorkbook.FullName) <> UCase(TEMPFILE) Then strOriginalName = ThisWorkbook.FullName
    If Dir(TEMPFILE) <> "" Then Kill TEMPFILE
    If Dir(TEMPFILE2) <> "" Then Kill TEMPFILE2
    ThisWorkbook.SaveAs TEMPFILE
    ThisWorkbook.SaveAs TEMPFILE2
    FileCopy TEMPFILE, strOriginalName
    Set wbk2 = Workbooks.Open(strOriginalName)
    bSaving = False
    wbk.Close False
End Sub

The following steps add code to the workbook's BeforeSave event to run the workaround above.

In the VBAProject window, double-click the ThisWorkbook icon to open the Code window.
At the top of this new Code window, there are two drop-down lists. In the Object (left) list, click Workbook; in the Procedure (right) list, click BeforeSave.

Type the following code in the Code window:

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean)
    If bSaving Then Cancel = False: Exit Sub
    Dim iAns As Integer
    iAns = MsgBox("Do you wish to Save As...?", vbYesNoCancel, "Save")
    Select Case iAns
        Case vbYes
            Cancel = True
            bSaving = True
            Application.Dialogs(xlDialogSaveAs).Show
            bSaving = False
            Exit Sub
        Case vbNo
            'Do normal - local save.
        Case vbCancel
            Cancel = True
            Exit Sub
    End Select
    bSaving = True
    Cancel = True
    Application.OnTime Now + TimeValue("00:00:01"), "SaveLocalThenCopy"
End Sub

Now, when you click Save As, Excel prompts you to choose either the default Excel Save As dialog box (click Yes), or to use the workaround above to save the document (click No).

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