Recalc of SUM() that refers to a cell across a range of worksheets

[Bill Schickling]

I'm using Excel 2003 w/ SP2 and have encountered a problem I don't recall
having before. I have a workbook where a summary sheet is used to aggregate
the values in each of the cells in the rest of the sheets by using a formula
with following syntax:
=sum('sheet1:sheetx'!Cn),
where "sheet1" is the name of the first sheet in the range of contiguous
sheets, "sheetx" is the name of the last sheet in that range, "C" is the
pertinent column letter for a cell (the columns in this workbook represent
years) and "n" is the pertinent row number.

When I insert a new column (for a new year) in the supporting worksheets and
then copy an existing column in the summary sheet (with the above formulas)
and insert it in the appropriate location in the summary sheet so that it
will refer to the proper column in the range of supporting sheets, the
formulas refer to the new column but the results don't reflect the sum of the
values in the new column. The results reflect the sum of the values in the
column from which the formulas were copied. If I simply hit (F2) and enter,
without changing the formulas, they will then produce the proper results.
However, it seems to me that i shouldn't have to do this. The formulas are
correct without editing them. Why don't the show the proper results
automatically? I've experimented with manual vs. automatic recalculation and
with iterations to no avail. Anybody have any ideas? Is this a bug?

 

[Niek Otten]

Tools>Options>Calculation tab, check Automatic

 

[Bill Schickling]

Thanks for the response. Have done that. Have also set to manual and hit
F9. Neither resolves the problem.

 

[Bill Schickling]

I'm thinking it must be a problem with this workbook. I tried replicating
the problem in a new workbook using a simple set of test data and was unable
to do so. What's really strange is that if I select one of the cells in the
problem workbook that has failed to re-calculate, use Tools>Formula
Auditing>Evaluate Formula and click on Evaluate, it will return the
UN-recalculated value! But if I then hit F2 and Enter on the same cell, it
properly recalculates and displays the correct result. Weird.

 

[Niek Otten]

Very, very rarely Excel looses its way in the recalculation chain.
You can rebuild the recalc chain with CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F9