Recalculating when Filtering

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 16, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Henk recently switched from Excel 97 to Excel 2003. When using a filter on large sets of data which also contain formulas, his Excel 2003 starts recalculating all the formulas over and over again after adjusting the filter. Henk noted that his Excel 97 also tried to calculate after changing the filter, but stopped immediately when the filter was used for a new selection. He wonders if there is a way to have Excel 2003 behave in the same way that Excel 97 did.

The short answer is that no, there isn't. That doesn't mean that all is lost, however. There are a couple of things you can try. First, immediately after applying a filter you can press Esc. This should stop the recalculation and you can then apply the next filter.

If you tire of this approach, consider turning off automatic recalculation. Follow these steps:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Calculation tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Calculation tab of the Options dialog box.

  4. Select the Manual option.
  5. Click OK.

When operating in this mode, Excel doesn't recalculate automatically. Instead, it waits for you to press F9 to indicate that you are ready to do the recalculation. The drawback to this approach, of course, is that you'll need to remember to recalculate your worksheet after your last filter is applied.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3136) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Tab Key Jumps a Screen at a Time

Have you ever pressed the Tab key, expecting to move to the next cell in your worksheet, only to have Excel completely ...

Discover More

Setting a Default Document Format

Word allows you to save your documents in a variety of different formats. You can specify the format when you actually ...

Discover More

Understanding Subroutines

The heart of creating powerful programs in VBA is to understand how to create subroutines. These structures allow you to ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! This guide will provide you with all the information you need to automate any task in Excel and save time and effort. Learn how to extend Excel's functionality with VBA to create solutions not possible with the standard features. Includes latest information for Excel 2024 and Microsoft 365. Check out Mastering Excel VBA Programming today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Removing Duplicates Based on a Partial Match

Some types of data may have certain fields that contain partially identical information. In such cases you may want to ...

Discover More

Filtering for Comments

Excel makes it easy to filter a data table based on various values in that table. It isn't so easy to filter according to ...

Discover More

Counting Filtered Rows

The filtering capabilities of Excel are indispensable when working with large sets of data. When you create a filtered ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 5 - 3?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.