AppleWorks 5: Spreadsheet Auto Recalculation May Require "Calculate Now"

Symptom

An AppleWorks spreadsheet can automatically recalculate formulas when data changes. To do this, you use references (addresses) of other cells in a formula. When you change the data in a referenced cell, AppleWorks automatically recalculates the formula using the new data. Spreadsheet documents created using AppleWorks 5 may not automatically recalculate the formula, requiring users to choose the Calculate Now menu command. If the document is opened in either AppleWorks 5 or 6, the issue persists in both Macintosh and Windows versions.


Solution

This issue does not occur with AppleWorks spreadsheet documents created in AppleWorks 5.0 or later for Windows. Choosing Calculate Now forces a recalculation, and updates the appropriate cell(s) in AppleWorks 5 spreadsheets. To prevent this issue from occurring in the future, AppleWorks 5 spreadsheets can be updated to AppleWorks 6.0 or later. To update the spreadsheet, use the following steps to copy data into a new AppleWorks 6 spreadsheet:

1. Open the affected spreadsheet in AppleWorks 6.0 or later.
2. Choose Select All from the Edit menu.
3. Choose Copy from the Edit menu.
4. Choose New from the File menu, then Spreadsheet from the submenu.
5. Choose Paste from the Edit menu.
6. Save the new spreadsheet as an AppleWorks 6 document.

For more information about AppleWorks, please visit its product page (http://www.apple.com/appleworks) or search the Knowledge Base.