What version of Excel are you using? I''ve found Excel 2007 to be much
slower than previous versions of Excel in performing such operations,
especially when Calculation is set to Automatic - seems that it wants to
recalculate the entire workbook with every cell's change in value.

As for automatically updating:
Excel 2003 and earlier: Tools -- Options -- [Calculation] tab, check the
box next to "Update remote references"

Same thing in Excel 2007: Office Button -- [Excel Options] button, then in
the "Advanced" group, scroll down about 3/4 of the way and in the "When
calculating this workbook" bunch you'll find the "Update links ..." item, and
in the next group there's also an item to ask if you want to be prompted
about whether or not to update them when the workbook is opened.

Hope this helps at least a little.
"Carlos" wrote:

We are very puzzled about the amount of time it is taking to open Excel
spreadsheets containing links to other spreadsheets. We have been attempting
to program all our reports into Excel and find that Lotus 1-2-3 from 1995
opens spreadsheets MUCH quicker.

We've tried to find an Excel set-up that would help open the spreadsheets
quicker but no luck.

Another thing we've noticed is that our spreadsheets will not update the
links to other spreadsheets after hitting the Calculate button unless we have
all the linked spreadsheets open also.

Example: Spreadsheet A picks up figures from spreadsheet B, C, and D. If we
attempt to open Spreadsheet A, it will take us anywhere from 2 minutes to an
hour to open if spreadsheets B, C, and D are NOT open.

This does not happen in LOTUS 1-2-3 which has a setting to "update links
upon opening".

The ONLY way for us to open spreadsheet A quickly is to FIRST open
spreadsheets B, C, and D.

Also, if these other spreadsheets are NOT open then the figures in
Spreadsheet A would NOT update.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

Thanks