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: Turning Off Screen Updating.
Many people write their own macros to manipulate the information in a workbook. Many times the macro may do quite a bit with the data, such as selecting different cells, replacing values or formulas, and taking other types of actions. This means that the Excel screen can look like it has "gone crazy" while the macro is running.
One thing you may want to do with your macro to make it run faster and to prevent distracting flashes on the screen is to turn off screen updating while the macro is running. The following macro lines will, respectively, turn off screen updating and then turn it back on in a VBA macro.
Application.ScreenUpdating = False Application.ScreenUpdating = True
The idea is to use the first line near the beginning of your macro, and then use the second line near the end. Thus, the main body of your macro can do its work behind the scenes without the necessity of stopping to update the screen.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2498) 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: Turning Off Screen Updating.
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2017-02-21 04:49:20
Barry
Something that is not mentioned is that the macro will run faster as Excel doesn't have to constantly refresh the screen.
It is also useful to turn off automatic recalculation to improve macro execution speed on large spreadsheets.
How much faster will depend on the macro itself and how many changes it makes to a worksheet and then on how much recalculation that is done, but on a large spreadsheet this can make a significant improvement in performance.
2017-02-21 04:43:46
Barry
Something you don't mention is that the macro will run faster as Excel doesn't have to constantly refresh the screen. It is also useful to turn off automatic recalculation How much faster will depend on the macro itself and how many changes it makes to a worksheet and then on how much recalculation that is done, but on a large spreadsheet this can make a significant improvement in performance
2017-02-20 07:54:53
Fernando Martinez
Excel 2016 not responding to Application.ScreenUpdating.Why
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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: 
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