The slope‐deflection method is a well‐known method used for the analysis of continuous beams and frames. One of its major tasks is to determine the relative displacement between two ends of each member or its chord rotationR(= ?/L).The paper presents a refined rapid method of computing chord rotation or rigid‐body rotation of each member by combining the results of several single degree‐of‐freedom rigid‐body displacements. Some supplementary descriptions and applications of the virtual‐work method in accordance with the above method were also presented.