ScreenUpdating Property

Applies To

Application object.

Description

True if screen updating is turned on. Read/write Boolean.

Remarks

Turn screen updating off to speed up your macro code. You won't be able to see what the macro is doing, but it will run faster.

Remember to set the ScreenUpdating property back to True when your macro ends (older versions of Microsoft Excel automatically reset this property, but Microsoft Excel 97 does not).

See Also

DisplayAlerts property, Interactive property.

Example

This example demonstrates how turning off screen updating can make your code run faster. The example hides every other column on Sheet1, while keeping track of the time it takes to do so. The first time the example hides the columns, screen updating is turned on; the second time, screen updating is turned off. When you run this example, you can compare the respective running times, which are displayed in the message box.

Dim elapsedTime(2)
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
For i = 1 To 2
    If i = 2 Then Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    startTime = Time
    Worksheets("Sheet1").Activate
    For Each c In ActiveSheet.Columns
        If c.Column Mod 2 = 0 Then
            c.Hidden = True
        End If
    Next c
    stopTime = Time
    elapsedTime(i) = (stopTime - startTime) * 24 * 60 * 60
Next i
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
MsgBox "Elapsed time, screen updating on: " & elapsedTime(1) & _
        " sec." & Chr(13) & _
        "Elapsed time, screen updating off: " & elapsedTime(2) & _
        " sec."