Excel sheet becomes very slow

You can use 'Get External data'
Select 'From Other Sources' 'From Microsoft Query' then 'Excel data'

This allows you to create a query on another workbook, including all the power of sql.

Create as many queries as you need to the same source each with their own conditions

After more frustration and searching on this problem, I think I've come up with the answer. As it turns out, the calculation of column widths in Excel is not simple, and the appearance of columns can depend on many factors and can vary from system to system. One such factor (and maybe the primary one) is the normal font style and size settings. If these are different in another computer, then the columns will automatically adjust to accommodate the normal font.

As it turns out this was the case for my problem. My normal font is Calibri 8 pt, whereas the other machine has the default setting of Calibri 11 pt. The difference in size was causing the problem. I changed the other machine's setting to 8 pt, and the sheet copied over without the size differences (i.e. everything that fit on the original sheet still fit in the new sheet). Note that when I was first trying to debug this issue, I checked the font style and size in the sheet itself, and they matched the original sheet. It's the normal font settings that had to be changed (under "Options").

I found my answer at WindowsSecrets.com and on the MS site. My explanation above was pretty brief, so I recommend taking a look at these pages if you're experiencing similar issues. Hope this helps somebody else.