Disable Cell Animation in Excel 2016

Question

Hi - I would like to disable the cell movement animation in Excel 2016. This was also added in Excel Windows 2015 but could be disabled through advanced settings; there does not seem to be a similar option in the Mac version. 

This "feature" is extremely frustrating as it materially slows navigating between cells. Can Microsoft please explain why it was included and why there is no way to disable it?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Hi Ray,

I looked through the entire list of options in XL2013 trying to find the setting that turns those annoying animations off, but I couldn't find one that seemed to control this feature. My plan was to record a macro as I turned them off and then see if the macro runs in Excel 2016 on the Mac.

Can you point me to the setting you found?

Answer 3

Hi Jim - there is an explanation of how to turn this off in the Windows version below. Since it's accessed through the system settings, it won't work for Mac. It seems like Microsoft made turning these animations off difficult for Windows users, also, which is pretty difficult to comprehend given how disruptive they are. 

http://www.accountingweb.com/technology/excel/how-to-disable-worksheet-animation-in-excel-2013

Answer 4

Yuk. Then it looks to me that Excel is simply hard wired to always have animations. On Windows, you have to tell Windows to ignore all the animations that Excel is performing. You're not really turning off animations in Excel.

I think the first feedback I sent to Microsoft in the first version of the 2016 Preview was asking how to turn off the animations. I think because I was one of the first people submitting reports I actually got a response, which was something like "Why would you ever want to turn them off?" It sounded more like (my interpretation) "We worked really really hard to bring this feature to the Mac and now you say you don't want this? We're trying to make the Mac version as much like the Windows version as we can!" It was as if I hurt their feelings.

I think we're beating a dead horse. Unless there's a setting in Excel itself, we won't be able to turn those distracting animations off.

You could put in a feature suggestion for an on/off preference. That can be done here:

http://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304933-excel-for-mac

Answer 5

Hi Jim - thanks very much. Yes, agreed; I think Microsoft has no intention of listening to users on this one. I'll submit a ticket on the above, though.