ScreenUpdating Property

Applies To

Application Object.

Description

True if screen updating is on. Read-write.

Remarks

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

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 it hides the columns, screen updating is on; the second time, screen updating is off. When you run this example, you can compare the two times that the example displays 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."