auditing limitations?

[Glenn]

I have a fairly complex spreadsheet that I inherited and
I'm trying to use the auditing tools to study the
spreadsheet. I've found that some fairly simple formula
are not resulting in the correct auditing results. For
instance, cell C1 contains "=A1+B1". If I "trace
dependents" while on cell A1 I get nothing, although if
I "trace precedents" while on cell C1 it correctly points
to A1 and B1.

I have calculations off, but I've found that the auditing
works properly after I re-enter the formula in C1 (just by
hitting enter while the formula is shown in the formula
bar). HOWEVER, once I re-calc the entire file (F9) the
auditing is back to the old (incorrect) function.

Previously the auditing has worked pretty well for me, and
I'm banging my head on this one...

Thanks,
Glenn

 

[Guest]

It turns out that Excel has a limitation. It can only
support the "trace dependents" function if there are fewer
than 64K formulas in the spreadsheet.

While I was working in XL2000, 2002 and 2003 have the same
limitation

I was able to get around the problem in my case by
deleting a bunch of columns while I was doing the
auditing. When I'm done making the changes to the model--
and it's time for the model to be used--I'll add those
columns back.

Xspandxl add-in apparently will run VB code to search the
entire worksheet for dependencies and produce a report,
but it is very time consuming and I didn't confirm that it
works.