Understanding Manual Calculation

When you change a value in any cell of a worksheet, Excel automatically recalculates all the other formulas within the worksheet. This means that Excel is always up to date, based on any changes you may have performed.

If you have an absolutely huge worksheet or a terribly slow computer (or both), then doing a calculation after every change can get very tedious. In these situations, you can actually spend more time waiting on Excel to finish calculating than you do on entering information.

The answer to this problem is to configure Excel so that all calculations are done manually. This is easy to do by following these steps:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the Calculation tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure the Manual radio button is selected.
4. Click on OK.

The steps to following in Excel 2007 are a bit different:

1. Click the Office button, then click Excel Options. Excel displays the Excel Options dialog box.
2. Click the Formulas area at the left of the dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. In the Calculation Options section of the dialog box, make sure the Manual radio button is selected.
4. Click on OK.

Now, Excel does not calculate your worksheet automatically. Instead, you must press F9 whenever you want to update the results displayed within your worksheet.