Microsoft KB Archive/125271

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XL5: Cells Recalculate When You Choose the Options Command

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0

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SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft Excel, when you choose Options from the Tools menu, Microsoft Excel starts calculating the cells on your worksheet, and the Options dialog box is not displayed until Microsoft Excel finishes calculating the worksheet, or until you interrupt the calculation.

NOTE: This behavior is really only noticeable with worksheets that contain a large number of formulas that take a few minutes to be calculated.

CAUSE
This behavior occurs because cells on the active worksheet are calculated when you open a workbook, even if the cells were already in the process of being calculated. When you choose Options from the Tools menu, Microsoft Excel opens the file XL5GALRY.XLS to access the chart autoformats. This causes the cells on the active worksheet to be recalculated.

Note that this behavior only occurs if you have not used the Options dialog box in the current session of Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel only opens the XL5GALRY.XLS file one time per session, the first time you choose Options from the Tools menu.

WORKAROUNDS
To work around this behavior, do either of the following:


 * To display the Options dialog box without having to wait for the worksheet to be recalculated, click on the worksheet to interrupt the calculation.
 * To prevent your worksheet from being recalculated when you open another file or when you choose Options from the Tools menu, change the Calculation option to Manual.

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Excel version 5.0c.

MORE INFORMATION
For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

"Q111491 XL5: XL5GALRY.XLS Opened As Hidden Workbook"