Why does "Calculate" appear?

[will]

Hi,

I have a large (3Mb) spreadsheet with lots of external links.

Calculation is switched to Automatic within Options, yet "Calculate" still
appears at the bottom of the screen. Is this because there are too many links
or its taking too long to update? The "Calculate" does not disappear after
time, which rather knocks that latter idea on the head!

Any ideas? Anything I should be worried about (eg circular reference)?

Thanks,

Will

 

[Kevin B]

Sounds as if it's taking a great deal of time updating all of those links. I
would set calculation to manual and update w/the F9 key when all of the edits
have been input. If it were a circular reference the status bar would
indicate "Circular: " followed by a cell address, usually the last cell in
which the circular reference was found.

 

[Jim Rech]

This article seems to be on point:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243495

--
Jim
| Hi,
|
| I have a large (3Mb) spreadsheet with lots of external links.
|
| Calculation is switched to Automatic within Options, yet "Calculate" still
| appears at the bottom of the screen. Is this because there are too many
links
| or its taking too long to update? The "Calculate" does not disappear after
| time, which rather knocks that latter idea on the head!
|
| Any ideas? Anything I should be worried about (eg circular reference)?
|
| Thanks,
|
| Will

 

[mikluk]

Try this link



The Calculate message may remain in the status bar when you enter
formulas that include cell references
View products that this article applies to.
Article ID : 243495
Last Review : January 11, 2005
Revision : 4.1
This article was previously published under Q243495
SYMPTOMS
When you enter formulas that include cell references, the "Calculate"
message may remain in the status bar, even though calculation is set to
automatic, or if you have manually calculated the file by pressing the
F9 key.

Additionally, when you use the Trace Dependents tool, all dependents
may not appear.
CAUSE
This behavior occurs when there are 65,536 or more dependencies to
unique references (the level or number of links between formulas).

NOTE: If the Iteration option is turned on, circular references also
cause the "Calculate" message to remain in the status bar.
MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft Excel calculates during different events like column
auto-resizing, when entering anything in any cell, and so forth.
However, Excel can only track 65,536 dependencies to unique references
for automatic calculation.

After the workbook has passed this limit, Excel no longer attempts to
recalculate only changed cells. Instead, it recalculates all cells
after each change. This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Excel will correctly calculate all formulas. However, the
"Calculate" message in the status bar indicates that Microsoft Excel
can no longer track the formula dependencies and is calculating every
formula in the workbook after each change. If you are unsure when the
last calculation event took place and you want to be sure your formulas
are up to date, simply start a calculation manually. To do this, press
CTRL+ALT+F9 and wait until "Calculating Cells: n%" disappears and
"Calculate" returns to the status bar.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APPLIES TO
• Microsoft Office Excel 2003
• Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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Keywords: kbprb KB243495

 

[Charles Williams]

There are 4 known conditions for Calculate in the statusbar: see

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

Charles
______________________
Decision Models
FastExcel 2.1 now available
www.DecisionModels.com

 

[Dave Peterson]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=243495
XL: Calculate Message Remains in Status Bar If 65,536 Formula References