You can have more than one Excel open at the same time. Now I don’t mean two workbooks, but two separate instances of Excel. So, if one is busy running a macro, or updating a power query, you can have a completely separate instance of Excel open be working on that. Think about it like having another application open. Just like when Excel is working on something you can flick to your browser or email program and use them, you get a new Excel workbook open that acts like a different app.
There are three ways to create this new instance of Excel. (Actually, there are other ways, but I think these are the most useful/easy.)
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Right-click the Excel icon, hold down Alt, and select βExcelβ. Keep holding down the Alt key until you get a dialogue box that asks, “Do you want to start a new instance of Excel?”. Click Yes.
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Hold down Alt and select the Excel icon from the Start menu. Again, keep holding down the Alt key.
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Right-click the Excel file you want to open, hold down Alt, (Again, keep holding down the Alt key) and choose βOpenβ. Or double left click, just like you normally would, and then immediately hold down the Alt key, and you guessed it, keep holding it until the dialogue box pops up.
Now you can have two spreadsheets, one working away on a long process and another that you are interacting with.