Excel much slower switching tabs by mouse click (~1.5 sec delay) than by keyboard shortcut

[theorist9]

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I've only noticed it with Excel 365 for Mac; I've not encountered it with Excel 365 for Windows.

I find Excel responds frustratingly slowly when I try switching to a new tab by clicking on it. I've timed it, and the delay is ~1.5 s. That might not sound like much, but if you want to quickly switch back and forth between tabs, the delay is noticeable. I've found this with both regular and macro-enabled files.

By contrast, when I try switching to a new tab using the fn-ctrl-up_arrow or fn-ctrl-down_arrow shortcut, it responds almost instantly.

The delay for both is longer when the tab to which I'm switching is holding a large, complex worksheet. But the keyboard shortcut is still far faster.

It's not my mouse, because for other tasks I get very quick response to my mouse clicks. I've also tried this with my laptop's trackpad, and get the same behavior.

I'm using Excel 16.43 (Office 365) in MacOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra). 16.43 is the last update available for High Sierra, and was released in November, so it's still fairly current; plus I've had this issue for a while, through many Office updates, so it's exceedingly unlikely a single point update will suddenly fix it. [I'm stuck with High Sierra because I use a 4k 27" external monitor (160 ppi), and the last OS on which text looks crisp (to me) with 160 ppi is High Sierra, because it is the last OS with native subpixel rendering. All later OS's need retina monitors (220 ppi) for text to look crisp to me. Thus, to avoid getting a headache when reading text and code, I have to stick with High Sierra until I'm able to upgrade my Mac to one capable of driving large external retina monitors (i.e., multiple 5k's).]

 

[bernuli]

Is there a delay switching between worksheets in an empty document? So like quit Excel, then start it back up and create a new workbook with no data. Is click switching worksheets still sluggish?

Also have you tried for troubleshooting, disconnect the external monitor and use only the MBP screen?

For me there is no delay.

 

[theorist9]

Is there a delay switching between worksheets in an empty document? So like quit Excel, then start it back up and create a new workbook with no data. Is click switching worksheets still sluggish?

Also have you tried for troubleshooting, disconnect the external monitor and use only the MBP screen?

For me there is no delay.

There's a slight delay with empty worksheets, but much less.

Disconnecting the ext. monitors and using the MBP screen it's a little more responsive, but the delay is still there. And if it were the external monitor, why would there be a diff. between mouse and KB shortcut?

 

[bernuli]

There's a slight delay with empty worksheets, but much less.

Disconnecting the ext. monitors and using the MBP screen it's a little more responsive, but the delay is still there. And if it were the external monitor, why would there be a diff. between mouse and KB shortcut?

I don't know. But I have a very similar setup and for me there is no delay on clicking between worksheets.

Could you create a new user in System Preferences, restart computer and log in as that user and see how Excel does?

 

[bernuli]

Actually, I was wrong. If I have a bunch of workbooks open, then clicking to another sheet in the same active workbook is much slower. Like you said, the keyboard shortcut is way faster. Also, when I click to change sheet on the active workbook, I notice on a separate workbook that is open, the view changes ever so slightly, but not if I do keyboard shortcut.

Not sure if this qualifies as a bug, but Excel could maybe use a code tweak for a faster UI.

 

[theorist9]

Thanks, really appreciate your following up on that. It was particularly helpful for two reasons:

1) That suggests it's an Excel-for-Mac problem, which saves me from the fruitless effort of trying to fix it on my system.

2) You were able to identify the key setup that creates the problem, which I didn't realize myself: You need to have a few other workbooks open at the same time.

 

[theorist9]

.

 

[theorist9]

If I have a bunch of workbooks open, then clicking to another sheet in the same active workbook is much slower. Like you said, the keyboard shortcut is way faster.

bernuli, what OS and version of Excel for Mac are you using?