EXCEL TROUBLE

All I can think of is you:

a) are running low on ram
b) have too many applications running at the same time
c) need to restart Excel, or
d) have something wrong with Excel and need to reinstall...

Cory

are the columns formulas or are they referenced in formulas?

Re: are the columns formulas or are they referenced in formulas?

THEY ARE Formulas

Excel has to recalculate the moved columns

I've had this problem too. I think the difference is between "copy" and "move", and it always happens if the selected area is either a formula itself (especially with if statements and vlookups in my case) or is referenced by a formula. When you copy a formula, the references are all relative, so excel always points the references to the same relative positions. When you move the formula, excel keeps the exact same references as in the formula's previous location. I think (but dont know) that means excel takes longer on a move because it has to recalculate, depending on where you paste to, the relative positions of the references.
A couple of things you might try to speed things up are
1) copy and paste special as values if you only need the results of the formula moved- also try getting rid of any other formulas you might have on the page by copying and pasting them as values (when Excel cycles through a recalculation during your formula move, it is recalculating all the formulas, not just the ones you are moving).
2) reduce calculation precision to displayed (under Tools-->Options, click on "calculate" tab and check the "precision as displayed" checkbox.
3) in the same calculate tab, you can also tell it to only recalculate manually, then you can pick when it does the recalculation after a move
4) remove other formulas on the sheet, if you no longer need them, by copying and pasting as values.
Hope that helps