If you have really big files that you are opening or closing and they seem to take a lot more time than you have (because they are running the calculations again), you can get Excel to just open or close without doing the recalculations. Some ideas below to speed up the opening or closing of an Excel file.
Open files quickly by stopping the calculations
If you want to open a file to get some information that doesn’t rely on the calculations e.g. you just need a list of the names of the clients or you want to look at the structure of the spreadsheet, you can stop the calculation process by pushing the ESC button while it is opening.
Note that this should only be done when the spreadsheet says it is calculating (look at the bottom right of the screen, it will say opening or calculating).
Also be careful that the information you are going to use with this quick open does not need to have a full re calculation to be correct.
Close/ Save Excel files quickly by stopping the calculations
When you close an Excel file, you may also find that it takes longer than you feel it should. This is often because it needs to do a full recalculation including any tables.
You can stop this process by clicking ESC while it is in calculation mode (again look at the bottom right to see whether it is saving or calculating). Excel will check that you are happy to stop the re calculation and if you agree (by clicking on the No button) then it will stop the calculations and just save the file.
Note that this means that the spreadsheet is saved without a recalculation, so make sure it recalculates at some point before you rely on it again.
Other reasons Excel is slow while working with the spreadsheet
Excel can be unnecessarily slow at other times besides the open and close. Below the 5 common reasons (and fixes) for spreadsheets being slow during operations.
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