Excel 2024: Stale Value Formatting

January 16, 2025 - by Bill Jelen

The Excel team added Stale Value Formatting in late 2023. The idea is that you might be working in a workbook with Manual Calculation enable. The strike-through formatting will remind you that certain cells need to be re-calculated.

To enable the feature, go to Formulas, Calculation Options. Select both Manual and Format Stale Values.

As of January 2024, the stale values will be formatted with a black strikethrough. There is currently no way to change the format. This, of course, annoys people who love to use Ctrl+5 to apply strikethrough formatting.

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Excel 2024: Stale Value Formatting

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