VBA – Turn off Screen Updating

As cool as it looks watching your VBA macro manipulate the screen, you can help your Macro run faster if you turn off (disable) ScreenUpdating.

Disable ScreenUpdating

1. To disable ScreenUpdating, At the beginning of your code put this line:

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

Enable ScreenUpdating

2. To re-enable ScreenUpdating, At the end of your code put this line:

Application.ScreenUpdating = True

VBA ScreenUpdating Example

Your procedure will then look like this:

Sub ScreenUpdating_Example()
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False

    'Do Something
    Range("a1").Copy Range("b1")
    Range("a2").Copy Range("b2")
    Range("a3").Copy Range("b3")


    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

ScreenUpdating Refresh

Disabling ScreenUpdating will make your VBA code run MUCH faster, but it will also make your work appear more professional. End-users typically don’t want to see the behind the scenes actions of your procedures (especially when the procedure runs slow). Also, you may not want end-users to see the behind the scenes functionality (ex. Hidden Worksheets). I recommend disabling (and re-enabling) ScreenUpdating in virtually all of your procedures.

However, there are some times when you want the screen to refresh. To refresh the screen, you will need to temporarily turn back on ScreenUpdating (there is no screen “refresh” command):

    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    'Do Something
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False

VBA Settings – Speed Up Code

There are several other settings to play with to improve your code speed.

Disabling Automatic Calculations can make a HUGE difference in speed:

Application.Calculation = xlManual

Disabling the Status Bar will also make a small difference:

Application.DisplayStatusBar = False

If your workbook contains events you should usually disable events at the beginning of your procedure:

Application.EnableEvents = False

Last, your VBA code can be slowed down when Excel tries to re-calculate page breaks (Note: not all procedures will be impacted).  To disable displaying page breaks use this line of code:

ActiveSheet.DisplayPageBreaks = False

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