I have on my Excel 2000 workbook some complex calculations. According to
Help, Excel "recalculates those cells that are dependent on other cells that
contain values that have changed." However, when I change cells on which the
complex calculations do not depend (or even if I simply apply the format
paintbrush to keep grouped columns the same width) it takes half a minute,
the same as when it recalculates the whole workbook.

I have set the calculation to Automatic, so that the non-complex formulas
get recalculated when I change their precedent cells. Based on the
information in Help, however, I believe that Excel is supposed to calculate
dependents only of changed cells, even in Automatic.

How can I prevent recalculation of cells whose precedents are unchanged?

Excel recalculates both volatile cells and their dependents and changed
cells and their dependents.

Probably you have some volatile functions somewhere (OFFSET is volatile)


Charles
______________________
Decision Models
FastExcel 2.3 now available
Name Manager 4.0 now available
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"hmm" wrote in message
...
I have on my Excel 2000 workbook some complex calculations. According to
Help, Excel "recalculates those cells that are dependent on other cells
that
contain values that have changed." However, when I change cells on which
the
complex calculations do not depend (or even if I simply apply the format
paintbrush to keep grouped columns the same width) it takes half a minute,
the same as when it recalculates the whole workbook.

I have set the calculation to Automatic, so that the non-complex formulas
get recalculated when I change their precedent cells. Based on the
information in Help, however, I believe that Excel is supposed to
calculate
dependents only of changed cells, even in Automatic.

How can I prevent recalculation of cells whose precedents are unchanged?

In addition to Charles' comments, when a workbook reaches a sufficiently
high level of complexity Excel no longer tries to track the cell
dependencies that permit minimal recalc.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243495/en-us

--
Jim
"hmm" wrote in message
...
|I have on my Excel 2000 workbook some complex calculations. According to
| Help, Excel "recalculates those cells that are dependent on other cells
that
| contain values that have changed." However, when I change cells on which
the
| complex calculations do not depend (or even if I simply apply the format
| paintbrush to keep grouped columns the same width) it takes half a minute,
| the same as when it recalculates the whole workbook.
|
| I have set the calculation to Automatic, so that the non-complex formulas
| get recalculated when I change their precedent cells. Based on the
| information in Help, however, I believe that Excel is supposed to
calculate
| dependents only of changed cells, even in Automatic.
|
| How can I prevent recalculation of cells whose precedents are unchanged?

Thanks Charles.

I use the INDIRECT.EXT function, one of whose parameters allows for making
it non-volatile. I used this feature to significantly reduce the
re-calculation time.

"Charles Williams" wrote:

Excel recalculates both volatile cells and their dependents and changed
cells and their dependents.

Probably you have some volatile functions somewhere (OFFSET is volatile)


Charles
______________________
Decision Models
FastExcel 2.3 now available
Name Manager 4.0 now available
www.DecisionModels.com

"hmm" wrote in message
...
I have on my Excel 2000 workbook some complex calculations. According to
Help, Excel "recalculates those cells that are dependent on other cells
that
contain values that have changed." However, when I change cells on which
the
complex calculations do not depend (or even if I simply apply the format
paintbrush to keep grouped columns the same width) it takes half a minute,
the same as when it recalculates the whole workbook.

I have set the calculation to Automatic, so that the non-complex formulas
get recalculated when I change their precedent cells. Based on the
information in Help, however, I believe that Excel is supposed to
calculate
dependents only of changed cells, even in Automatic.

How can I prevent recalculation of cells whose precedents are unchanged?