my excel runs really slowly - why? can you optimise a spreadsheet?

[walls_e]

My excel seems to run really slowly. Whenever I enter a number it says
it's calculating the cells either by number or percentage. So doing
simple entries can take forever.

In my file there is about 6 sheets with formulas that run across all of
them. Would this have something to do with it? As what i've made isn't
really that huge or complicated a file. The computer running it isn't
slow or old either.

Can a file be optimised or could it be a problem with the program? Is
there any way of speeding up excel.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

My excel seems to run really slowly. Whenever I enter a number it says
it's calculating the cells either by number or percentage. So doing
simple entries can take forever.

In my file there is about 6 sheets with formulas that run across all of
them. Would this have something to do with it? As what i've made isn't
really that huge or complicated a file. The computer running it isn't
slow or old either.

Can a file be optimised or could it be a problem with the program? Is
there any way of speeding up excel.

Depending on the complexity of the workbook, calculation may take some time.
Apparently what is happening, is that Excel is calculating automatically
each time you press enter. You can turn this off by going to Preferences,
selecting the calculation tab and changing calculation to manual. Now, you
can enter what ever you want and Excel will NOT recalculate the entire
workbook. Instead, the word "calculate" will appear in the status bar at the
bottom of the screen showing you that a recalculation is necessary. To
recalculate the workbook, press F9.

For you second question, yes, it may be possible to optimize a workbook to
reduce calculation time. The success of this depends on how it has been set
up in the first place. If you can supply some description of what the
workbook does, what the sheets are, and a few of the formulas that you are
using, we may be able to offer some advice.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Can a file be optimised or could it be a problem with the program? Is
there any way of speeding up excel.

There are numerous ways of speeding up calculations in XL. Take a look
at Charles Williams' site:

http://www.decisionmodels.com/optspeed.htm

Feel free to post examples of your formulae.