Thank you! Simple and short explanation, without writing a ton of paragraphs of why finding circular references is important :)

thank you, I thought it would be even simpler by just clicking on the statement in the status bar. your explanation was spot on.

Thank you. I have been looking for the error for two hours and found it in 10 minutes with your help!

Thanks for help. This is an increase in my knowledge.

Hi, thanks for the instructions - but the lower entry (Circular references) of the error checking list is grayed out. No luck in making it selectable - ever.

Error checking is not a properly working feature of Excel generally. Had to switch off four of the selections under options, formular, error checking - otherwise these keept demanding changes to cells/formulars, which were fully correct.

A calculate command now takes 5 minutes - then the invisible checking for circular references begins - and takes another 2-3 minutes. Then you get one circular reference listed in the status line. Having studied that formular and tracked it, Excel says that the offset formular is a circular reference - but a direct reference to the resulting address is OK!

Have now spent a weeks time on trying to hunt down these spooks of circular references, which overload my PC entirely (20 minutes to do a save as command).

Trying to get help from Microsoft, I really like these helping words from Microsoft Support:

[i]While you're looking, check for indirect references. They happen when you put a formula in cell A1, and it uses another formula in B1 that in turn refers back to cell A1. [u]If this confuses you, imagine what it does to Excel.[/u][/i]

Poor Excel, bad user(s) ...

If it is only me being unsuccesfull in solving the circular references problems - then I'm happy for all of you ... Otherwise, a little bit of confort to you, keep fighting - there must be a way to manage this degrading of error management in Excel 2013. But using Microsoft Office has opened up another cost account for my job ...