why does my excel worksheet slow way down and have a blue circle

[genyjoL]

the blue circle shows up when I try to select a cell to add info. Not always
but a lot of the time which really slows data entry down. It is aggravating
and I don't know why it is doing it. I can't enter anything until the circle
is gone.

 

[JLatham]

Again, I'm betting you're using Excel 2007, right?

It seems that every time you do almost anything in Excel 2007 it wants to
recalculate all the formulas in the entire workbook. This causes the delay.

One way to help you get on with data entry would be to set calculations to
manual:
Office button --> [Excel Options] --> {Formulas} group, select "Manual"
calculation.

To force a recalculation while in this manual mode, press [F9]. You can go
through the same process to return the workbook back to automatic mode.

NOTE: if you leave it in manual mode when you close it, later on when you
run Excel again and happen to open that workbook before any others, all
workbooks opened during that session after the first one will get set to
Manual calculation mode also. This can create some confusion later on when
using those other workbooks.