Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Clearing the Undo Stack in a Macro.

Clearing the Undo Stack in a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 19, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

In Word, you can use the UndoClear method with the ActiveDocument object in order to clear the Undo stack. If you are programming macros in Excel's flavor of VBA, you may wonder if there is a similar method for use in Excel.

Excel VBA doesn't provide a method like UndoClear. The reason is because the undo stack is automatically cleared by Excel whenever your macro makes a change (any change) to the workbook. If your macro doesn't make any changes, and you still want it to clear the undo stack, then all you need to do is make an innocuous change to the worksheet. For instance, the following macro copies the contents of cell A1 back into A1 and, in the process, clears the undo stack:

Sub ClearUndo()
    Range("A1").Copy Range("A1")
End Sub

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2463) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Clearing the Undo Stack in a Macro.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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