[Solved] 256 column limit in XLS spreadsheet

[KeithOO]

Using Mac 10.13.6, OO 4.1.6, Saving as 97/20000/XP .xls.
No warnings but when doc. closed and reopened, columns 251 onwards are lost.
Any suggestions please. Thanks.

[Villeroy]

256 columns and 65536 rows is the maximum with xls. It is a limitation of the file format. ALWAYS save your work in the native file format of your respective application. When using OpenOffice or LibreOffice (LO is the successor to OpenOffice) you always save your office documents in Open Document Format (name suffix odt for text, ods for spreadsheets, odp for presentations, odg for vector graphic).
For readers of your documents you always have PDF copies at hand.
Co-workers may install LibreOffice for free or they may open Open Document Format with Word or Excel or you may send them docx/xlsx. LibreOffice can save docx/xlsx and pptx. xlsx supports more than 256x65536 cells. But you must not do your work in foreign file formats. Open them and save your own ODF copy to work with.

[robleyd]

Don't save as .xls if you want more than 256 columns as the XLS format doesn't support that number of columns.

By default you will receive a warning about saving in foreign format; perhaps you have chosen to not display those warnings.

Warning about saving in a foreign format

ooxlscols.png (8.58 KiB) Viewed 5372 times

Warning about loss of extra columns

ooxlscols1.png (4.86 KiB) Viewed 5372 times

You can restore the warnings through Tools | Options | Load/Save | General or for Mac OpenOffice | Preferences | Load/Save | General and check the option Warn when not saving in ODF or default format. The second warning should however have been displayed.

[KeithOO]

Thanks each for prompt replies. I smiled to myself as some years ago, I was having a problem with .ods and changed to .xls. I think it was a problem related to Filemaker into which I have to import the data each month. The 256 col problem has only recently shown up as the OO doc has only recently exceeded 256 cols (one or two being added each month).
What is best workaround please? Thanks.

[RoryOF]

Unless you must share files with others, best to work and save in .ods format. If you must use .xls, either reconsider your associates, who are obviously unenlightened, or recast your spreadsheet to perhaps use multiple sheets, each of less than 256 columns.

For example: In my case I use a simple spreadsheet to track bank account and expenditure of twelve sheets, one for each month, the end total for one month automatically linking forward to the first entry for the next month.

[Villeroy]

Not even Excel can show more than 256 columns in an xls. It is a technical limit of availlable cell addresses in a historic file format. Filemaker accepts many different file formats.

[KeithOO]

So no known workaround? Thanks.

[Villeroy]

Workaround is whatever your Filemaker application can handle and whatever is not limited to 256 columns. Maybe csv or dBase?

[mSnus]

Surprisingly, this also applies to XLSX format in 2025

[MrProgrammer]

Surprisingly, this also applies to XLSX format in 2025

This is not your topic, mSnus. It belongs to KeithOO and they are asking about OpenOffice saving in XLS format. OpenOffice cannot save in the XLSX format so your post is off-topic. If you would like to discuss XLSX further, please open your own topic and explain what you're having trouble with.