Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Understanding Manual Calculation.
When you change a value in any cell of a worksheet, Excel automatically recalculates all the other formulas within the worksheet. This means that Excel is always up to date, based on any changes you may have performed.
If you have an absolutely huge worksheet or a terribly slow computer (or both), then doing a calculation after every change can get very tedious. In these situations, you can actually spend more time waiting on Excel to finish calculating than you do on entering information.
The answer to this problem is to configure Excel so that all calculations are done manually. This is easy to do by following these steps:
Now, Excel does not calculate your worksheet automatically. Instead, you must press F9 whenever you want to update the results displayed within your worksheet.
You can also change the calculation setting in this manner:
Figure 1. The formulas area of the Excel Options dialog box.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9999) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Understanding Manual Calculation.
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2014-10-01 03:28:44
Steven Piers
Perhaps you can add the option to press shift + F9, this will only recalculate the active sheet in stead of the total file.
2014-10-01 03:28:03
Steven Piers
Perhaps you can add the option to press shift + F9, this will only recalculate the active sheet in stead of the total file.
2014-07-28 08:58:57
Bryan
I've said it before (once on this tip, actually, before it was removed) and I'll say it again: if you have a slow worksheet, you can resort to manual calculation, but it would be far worth your time investment to do some research on the internet about how to speed up your worksheets. Sometimes something as easy as deleting empty rows can make the difference between insufferable and unnoticeable calculation lags.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
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