How do I force a recalculation of a spreadsheet

When I edit a spreadsheet in Numbers, say swap rows, the spreadsheet won't always update the calculation. How do I force a spreadsheet recalculation as I can in Excel with CMD=?

I searched Help on Recalculate and Recalculation and couldn't find a hit.

Thanks.

Late 2008 MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X (10.5.5), Vista Bootcamp and Fusion

Posted on Nov 5, 2008 7:47 AM

Reply
9 replies

Nov 6, 2008 11:46 AM in response to jaxjason

Hello Jason

Sure, editing a cell forces the recalculation of the entire sheet but was was surprising was the sentence:

the spreadsheet won't always update the calculation.


I never got such a behaviour. Just a recalculation taking a lot of time.
I get that at least once a day. Sometimes, the Force Quit pane claims "Numbers not responding" but now I am accustomed and I know that it simply means that Numbers is busy doing useless tasks due to a bad design.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 6 novembre 2008 20:46:19)

Nov 7, 2008 8:56 AM in response to jaxjason

Thanks for the responses. In Excel, both Mac and PC, the user can force a recalc if for some reason it's not happening automatically. I'm a bit surprised that the equivalent keystroke doesn't exist in Numbers.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. I was doing my own comparison of Excel vs. Numbers, and have reached the conclusion that Excel is better suited for my purposes, if only because I know the nuances of the program, e.g., recalculation.

Nov 7, 2008 9:22 AM in response to BocaBoy

There is no need for such a feature because every change activates the recalculation.
I repeat that the problem is that the process may require several minutes.
Given that we may think that it doesn't behaves but it does.

Of course, you are completely free to move back to Excel.
When someone is not satisfied by Numbers, I prefer to see it quitting the beast than continuously rant against it 😉

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 7 novembre 2008 18:20:47)

Nov 12, 2008 7:08 AM in response to BocaBoy

what your talking about is the F9 key stroke. This is done normally when automatic calculation is turned off due to lg recalulation periods due to many lookups, cross references or circular references normally. I do not think there is an option to turn off auto-calculaiton in Numbers. But I will have to look again when I get home.

If someone knows the equiavalent keystroke in Numbers, please let us know, if it exists. If not anyone can request it by using the feedback option under the Numbers menu item.

Jason

Nov 12, 2008 10:25 AM in response to jaxjason

Hello Jason

There is no feature allowing us to change the recalculation behaviour.

When we change something, the program automatically enter in the recalculation process. This one may take a lot of time. During that, we can't do nothing with the program.
Look in "Apple Menu > Force Quit".
You will see the message "Numbers not responding". Most of the time it's an inadequate one. It would be more logical to say "Numbers is busy".

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mercredi 12 novembre 2008 19:25:22)

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How do I force a recalculation of a spreadsheet

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