How to disable Excel's automatic cell referenc

Question

I've got a massive Excel 2003 spreadsheet I'm working on. There are a lot of very large formulas with a lot of cell references. Here's a simple example.

='Sheet'!AC69+'Sheet'!AC52+'Sheet'!AC53)*$D$3+'Sheet'!AC49

Most of them are more complicated than that, but this gives a good idea of what I'm working with. Few of these cell references are absolute ($s). I'd like to be able to copy these cells to a different location without the cell references changing. I know I can simply use f4 to make the references absolute, but there is a lot of data and I may need to use Fill later. Is there any way to temporarily disable the cell reference changing on copy-paste/fill without making the references absolute?

EDIT: I just found out that you can do this with VBA by copying the cell contents as text instead of a formula. I'd like to not have to do this though because I want to copy whole rows/columns at once. Is there a simple solution I am missing?

Answer 1

It's common to use find/ replace to disable formulas whilst performing manipulations. For example, copy with transpose. The formula is disabled by placing some placeholder (e.g. "$=") in front of it. Find replace can get rid of these once the manipulation is complete.

This vba just automates the find/ replace for the active sheet.

' toggle forumlas on active sheet as active/ inactive
' by use of "$=" prefix

Sub toggle_active_formulas()
    Dim current_calc_method As String
    initial_calc_method = Application.Calculation
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
    Dim predominant As Integer
    Dim c As Range
    For Each c In ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Cells
        If c.HasFormula Then
            predominant = predominant + 1
        ElseIf "$=" = Left(c.Value, 2) Then
            predominant = predominant - 1
        End If
    Next c
    If predominant > 0 Then
        For Each c In ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Cells
            On Error Resume Next
            If c.HasFormula Then
                c.Value = "$" & c.Formula
            End If
        Next c
    Else
        For Each c In ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Cells
            On Error Resume Next
            If "$=" = Left(c.Value, 2) Then
                c.Formula = Right(c.Value, Len(c.Value) - 1)
            End If
        Next c
    End If
    Application.Calculation = initial_calc_method
End Sub

Answer 2

I found another workaround that is very simple: 1. Cut the contents 2. Paste them in the new location 3. Copy the contents that you just pasted into the new location you want. 4. Undo the Cut-Paste operation, putting the original contents back where you got them. 5. Paste the contents from the clipboard to the same location. These contents will have the original references.

It looks like a lot, but is super fast with keyboard shortcuts: 1. Ctrl-x, 2. Ctrl-v, 3. Ctrl-c, 4. Ctrl-z, 5. Ctrl-v

Answer 3

Haven't check in Excel, but this works in Libreoffice4:

The whole thing of address rewriting comes during consecutive
(a1) cut
(a2) paste

You need to interrupt the consecutiveness by putting something in-between:
(b1) cut
(b2) select some empty cells (more than 1) and drag(move) them
(b3) paste

Step (b2) is where the cell that is about to update itself stops the tracking. Quick and simple.

Answer 4

Click on the cell you want to copy. In the formula bar, highlight the formula.

Press Ctrl C.

Press escape (to take you out of actively editing that formula).

Choose new cell. Ctrl V.

Answer 5

Simple workaround I used just now while in a similar situation:

1. Make a duplicate of the worksheet
2. Cut + Paste from the duplicate worksheet
3. Delete duplicate worksheet to clean up

Your cell references are now copied w/o being altered.