I have a very large spreadsheet with several megabytes of input data that
takes 10-20 minutes to perform a recalculation. I normally use the
spreadsheet with automatic recalculation turned off. Occasionally, though, I
will either open the spreadsheet while I have another spreadsheet open (which
has auto-recalc enabled) - which causes a recalc to occur - or manually
initiate a recalculation. Is there any way to "break into" Excel and get it
to terminate the recalc in mid-stream? I've tried "Esc" and other usual key
sequences to no avail.

Does using "Esc" give you a long enough pause to change Calculation back to
Manual?

Also see http://www.decisionmodels.com/optspeedd.htm and associated pages
for some ideas on how to speed up excel calculation: 10-20 minutes is too
long.

regards
Charles
__________________________________________________
The Excel Calculation Site
http://www.decisionmodels.com

"tengel" wrote in message
...
I have a very large spreadsheet with several megabytes of input data that
takes 10-20 minutes to perform a recalculation. I normally use the
spreadsheet with automatic recalculation turned off. Occasionally,
though, I
will either open the spreadsheet while I have another spreadsheet open
(which
has auto-recalc enabled) - which causes a recalc to occur - or manually
initiate a recalculation. Is there any way to "break into" Excel and get
it
to terminate the recalc in mid-stream? I've tried "Esc" and other usual
key
sequences to no avail.

"Esc" doesn't pause the calculation or anything else. I agree "10-20 minutes
is too long", but this is a 85+ MByte Excel spreadsheet, and I'm running on a
'hot', dual-processor Dell box with plenty of memory. When Excel performs
the recalc, the Task Manager 'cpu meter' shows one CPU pegged.
Unfortunately, so far I haven't found any way to stop the recalculation once
Excel starts it.

"Charles Williams" wrote:

Does using "Esc" give you a long enough pause to change Calculation back to
Manual?

Also see http://www.decisionmodels.com/optspeedd.htm and associated pages
for some ideas on how to speed up excel calculation: 10-20 minutes is too
long.

regards
Charles
__________________________________________________
The Excel Calculation Site
http://www.decisionmodels.com

"tengel" wrote in message
...
I have a very large spreadsheet with several megabytes of input data that
takes 10-20 minutes to perform a recalculation. I normally use the
spreadsheet with automatic recalculation turned off. Occasionally,
though, I
will either open the spreadsheet while I have another spreadsheet open
(which
has auto-recalc enabled) - which causes a recalc to occur - or manually
initiate a recalculation. Is there any way to "break into" Excel and get
it
to terminate the recalc in mid-stream? I've tried "Esc" and other usual
key
sequences to no avail.

"Esc" pauses the calculation momentarily on my system. What version of Excel
are you using?

I meant that 10-20 minutes is too long for an 85+MB spreadsheet. Usually you
can reduce that kind of calculation time by a factor of 10 to 100.

Charles
__________________________________________________
The Excel Calculation Site
http://www.decisionmodels.com

"tengel" wrote in message
...
"Esc" doesn't pause the calculation or anything else. I agree "10-20
minutes
is too long", but this is a 85+ MByte Excel spreadsheet, and I'm running
on a
'hot', dual-processor Dell box with plenty of memory. When Excel performs
the recalc, the Task Manager 'cpu meter' shows one CPU pegged.
Unfortunately, so far I haven't found any way to stop the recalculation
once
Excel starts it.

"Charles Williams" wrote:

Does using "Esc" give you a long enough pause to change Calculation back
to
Manual?

Also see http://www.decisionmodels.com/optspeedd.htm and associated pages
for some ideas on how to speed up excel calculation: 10-20 minutes is too
long.

regards
Charles
__________________________________________________
The Excel Calculation Site
http://www.decisionmodels.com

"tengel" wrote in message
...
I have a very large spreadsheet with several megabytes of input data
that
takes 10-20 minutes to perform a recalculation. I normally use the
spreadsheet with automatic recalculation turned off. Occasionally,
though, I
will either open the spreadsheet while I have another spreadsheet open
(which
has auto-recalc enabled) - which causes a recalc to occur - or manually
initiate a recalculation. Is there any way to "break into" Excel and
get
it
to terminate the recalc in mid-stream? I've tried "Esc" and other
usual
key
sequences to no avail.

Excel 2003 (11.8231.8221) SP3

"Charles Williams" wrote:

"Esc" pauses the calculation momentarily on my system. What version of Excel
are you using?

I meant that 10-20 minutes is too long for an 85+MB spreadsheet. Usually you
can reduce that kind of calculation time by a factor of 10 to 100.

Charles
__________________________________________________
The Excel Calculation Site
http://www.decisionmodels.com

I just tested on that exact same version and it paused momentarily.

Must be workbook dependent: you are'nt using any VBA or UDFs are you?

Charles
__________________________________________________
The Excel Calculation Site
http://www.decisionmodels.com

"tengel" wrote in message
...
Excel 2003 (11.8231.8221) SP3

"Charles Williams" wrote:

"Esc" pauses the calculation momentarily on my system. What version of
Excel
are you using?

I meant that 10-20 minutes is too long for an 85+MB spreadsheet. Usually
you
can reduce that kind of calculation time by a factor of 10 to 100.

Charles
__________________________________________________
The Excel Calculation Site
http://www.decisionmodels.com

No, just the standard Excel functions.

Because you said "Esc" works for you, I copied the spreadsheet to a
different system (which has Excel 2007 SP1) and find that the "Esc" key will
pause a calculation there. Thanks for your help (time to upgrade! ;-)

"Charles Williams" wrote:

I just tested on that exact same version and it paused momentarily.
Must be workbook dependent: you are'nt using any VBA or UDFs are you?

Charles
__________________________________________________
The Excel Calculation Site
http://www.decisionmodels.com