Auto Calc

[Martin Ryan]

Everytime I open Excel, AutoCalc is helpfully turned on for me. Disaster when I open a workbook full of DBS formulae.

When I remember, I go to Tools -> Options and turn it off, but when I restart Excel it's back on again.

Remind me where I turn this off permanently?

Cheers,
Martin

[Eric]

That usually does it. However, a file can be saved with auto calc on, which will override your default setting. This also applies t you personal.xla file. If your setting is Manual but the personal.xla is auto it will overwrite the setting each time you open excel.

[Alan Kirk]

Everytime I open Excel, AutoCalc is helpfully turned on for me. Disaster when I open a workbook full of DBS formulae.

When I remember, I go to Tools -> Options and turn it off, but when I restart Excel it's back on again.

Remind me where I turn this off permanently?

You can't, exactly. It's not one of Excel's brightest features. The issue is discussed here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214395/en-us

In short,

The first document opened uses the calculation mode with which it was last saved. Subsequently opened documents use the same mode.

Eric got close to the correct answer; unless you specify a default template, and assuming that you have no other files in your startup folder, personal.xls will often be the first file opened and ergo will set the calculation mode for the session. If you DO have other startup files, from memory I don't think that you can predict the opening order.

However I've found creating my own default template to be the best solution, since it seems to load before anything else. (Though whether this is version specific, I'm not sure.) This is discussed in:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822107/en-us

If you save a workbook named Book.xlt, and then put it in a startup folder location, that workbook is the default workbook when you start Excel or open a new workbook.

Typically I include a couple of non-default styles that I like to use as well, and obviously set the calc mode to manual before saving book.xlt. I haven't had the problem since.