XL98: MS Query Is Not Executed in the Background

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Asynchronous Queries

Microsoft Excel 98 can execute a query in the background, or can execute a query asynchronously. Microsoft Excel 98 can execute a query and get data asynchronously with ODBC drivers that support asynchronous behavior. Asynchronous execution runs the query in the background so that control is returned to Microsoft Excel while the external data is retrieved.

Earlier versions of Microsoft Excel use synchronous queries only. With synchronous queries, you cannot run the query in the background, and the query must be finished before control is returned to Microsoft Excel.

Saving Query Definitions and Enabling Background Refresh

After you select the option to return data to Microsoft Excel from Microsoft Query or from the Query Wizard, the "Returning External Data to Microsoft Excel" dialog box appears. In this dialog box, click Properties. The External Data Range Properties dialog box appears. To turn on background updating, click to select both the Save Query Definition check box and the Enable Background Refresh check box. (Both of these options are selected by default.)

After the data is returned to Microsoft Excel, you can change the properties for the external data range if you have saved the query definition with the worksheet. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select a cell in the data range that contains the results of the query.
2. On the Data menu, point to Get External Data and click Data Range Properties.

Clearing the Save Query Definition check box after the query returns data to the workbook permanently removes the query definition from the worksheet, but the query results remain. If you clear the Save Query Definition check box and click OK, you cannot update the query or change the data range properties.