Excel Calculation Automatic or Manual

Excel on Automatic or Manual

Automatic or manual makes me think of cars, and choosing a transmission type, but an Excel workbook can also be on Automatic or Manual calculation.

And just like a car, it’s safest if you know what type of Excel calculation mode you’re driving, before you head for the information highway.


In a car, you can tell if it’s a manual transmission, if there’s a clutch pedal, to the left of the brake pedal. In Excel, it might not be obvious whether the calculation mode is set for Automatic or Manual.

Add a Calculation Indicator

To help avoid problems, you can add Automatic and Manual to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) in Excel. This has two benefits:

  • you can quickly see the current calculation mode,
  • and you can easily change the current calculation mode.

Those check boxes are really helpful when working with big, complex files. I can easily turn calculations to Manual while making changes to the file, and then back to Automatic to make sure everything is working correctly.

Automatic and Manual on Quick Access Toolbar
Automatic and Manual on Quick Access Toolbar

Why Does Calculation Change to Manual?

Occasionally, a client will call about problems with an Excel file, that was working perfectly the day before.

Sometimes the problem can be traced to the calculation setting. Somehow, it switched to Manual, and the client doesn’t know how or why.

Even if you never change your calculation mode, it can be changed without your knowledge. The calculation mode setting is affected by the first workbook that’s opened during an Excel session.

So, if a co-worker sends you a workbook that was saved in Manual calculation mode, and you open that workbook first thing in the morning, it could affect the rest of your Excel files. With the Automatic and Manual settings visible on your QAT, you’ll have a better chance of noticing the problem.

Watch the Video

To see the effects of opening Excel workbooks with different calculation mode settings, watch this short Excel tutorial video.

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12 thoughts on “Excel Calculation Automatic or Manual”

  1. I can’t think of any reason to set calculation to manual. Unless you have an extremely slow workbook and you need to set it to manual (temporarily) to fix it.

    1. correct, or if you are working with streaming data (like market prices) and need to time stamp for analysis / record keeping purposes.

  2. @sam, wow, your QAT is pretty full already! No wonder you don’t want to add the calculation check boxes.
    I wish we could make the text labels smaller, so they just say Auto and Man, but I like them on the QAT, where they’re one click, instead of 3 clicks (Formulas/Calculation Options/Automatic)

    @JP, that’s about the only time I change calculation to manual. It can save lots of time when editing a big workbook.

  3. “I wish we could make the text labels smaller” – you can …you will need a bit of XML to create your own buttons on the QAT

  4. Debra, do you have an equivalent capability for xl2003? I have a macro that I use, but is does not always catch changes made by VBA.

  5. Many thanks for a hugely useful post. I’ve long griped about how easily Excel hides the “Calculate” message (which warns that Excel is probably displaying “incorrect” values) by overlaying it with comparatively trivial messages. Now, your suggestion about adding the two buttons to the QAT takes a lot of the sting out of this.

  6. @sam, I skipped the Excel 2007 XML programming, and was happy to see that the Ribbon is easy to customize in Excel 2010.

    @AlexJ, unfortunately I haven’t found an equivalent in Excel 2003.

    @BrianR, thanks — glad the tip helped you.

  7. You could save space by putting only one of those buttons, as generally they act like a toggle. The ‘Auto except for tables’ option is switched off as soon as you click either button anyway, so I don’t think you lose anything by not having both buttons.

  8. Hi…
    I got one file that wont stay in automatic, I go in and change it to automatic and excel update all the calculations. But on my next input it don’t calculate, I look in the settings and it back in manual mode… VERY frustrating… since it’s a big file… 🙁
    anybody has any ideas?
    // Carl

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