Excel files in separate program windows

[Weglian]

Would "Tools" "Options" "View" & check "Windows in Taskbar" get what
you want?

Don S

I found this when I came to ask for the same functionality in Excel and in
PowerPoint. The option above makes it even less user friendly, as far as I
can tell. When you choose that option, you can't switch between worksheets
via the taskbar at all. What we want is to have two Excel spreadsheets open
at the same time so that you can see and use both at once. The above
suggestion to have Excel open a new instance works, but not if you open a new
spreadsheet from within Excel, itself. I want to be able to have 5 windows,
each with a separate worksheet, all of which I can see at once (or at least
enough to click to pull it to the front). I use two monitors, so it's easy
to be productive this way.

Excel on the Mac works this way, but I'm on a PC, now. I vote for changing
it on the PC!

-John Weglian

 

[KWA]

Hi, I know that it is like 2 years back. I need to fix this now in order for
me to be able to use 2 screens to speed up my work.

My problem with regards to your instruction below:-

"Go to explorer, choose tools, then folder options. Click the File Types
tab. Scroll down to the XLS extension. Click the Advanced button. Choose
"open", then click the edit button"

What do you mean by 'explorer'? Internet explorer? I couldn't find anything
said above. Please advice.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Windows Explorer (in Windows XP, click on Start | All Programs |
Accessories) or My Computer.

 

[Susie]

Hi there, I know this is a really old post, but I'm hoping someone will read
this. I did what was suggested below, as I struggled with the same issue.
Only problem is that now I can't get rid of the %1. I added it in, and it
worked, but now everytime I open an excel, it tells me personal.xls is locked
for editing. The files still open fine, but it's annoying. I thought I
would just remove the "%1" and uncheck the "browse in same window" box that I
just noticed in the same dialog box. I've tried many times, but everytime I
go back into the advanced, open, edit, the %1 is back! I tried deleting the
whole thing, and browsing to the excel program, but it always puts the %1 in.
Any suggestions??

 

[Andrew O.]

Hi,

Thanks everyong for the ideas on this. The %1 works indeed but it is a
poor solution when you are running Excel 2007 on a notebok. I have a
Nov 2006 IBM with 1 GB RAM and it takes a while to load a new copy of
Excel 2007.

Another funny problem is that if you open 2 files in one copy of Excel
there are 3 Excel tabs if you use Alt+Tab for navigation. If you open
another 2 files in another copy of Excel, you get 6 Escel tabs via Alt
+Tab, which makes it virtually unusable.

If we don't talk about this issue and don't report to Microsoft, we
are going to "eat ..." forever.

The issues (in my opinion) that can help classify this behaviour as a
bug are:

1) Inability to view 2 or more spreadsheets side by side (either on
one screen or on two screens).

2) Confusing behavior of the "Undo" feature. You are used to one
behavious in MS Word (separate list of undo items for each document),
and you have a completely different behaviour for MS Excel (single
undo list for all open documents).

Anyone know how this can be reported to the Excel team?

Andrew

 

[Andrew O.]

Susie, I've ran into the same problem - not being able to get rid if
%1. I was able to fix it by removing the "open" action and creating it
again. Now all is OK.

 

[Tom Walker (Littleton)]

The file association suggtion probably works -- but some people have had some
issues tyring to implement it. The bottom line is that you want two
instances of Excel running -- so just bring up another instance of excel from
the START menu. So, instead of inside Excel clicking File --> Open -- click
START outside of Excel, select Excel, then in the new Excel instance click
File --> Open. You can have each instance on separate monitors. That is the
way Microsoft designed it to work (not sure about older versions) -- and it
is unfortunate that this design is inconsistant with how Word windows it's
documents -- but that's life in the big city :} -Tom.

 

[Tom Walker (Littleton)]

To avoid the confustion of alt-tab switching between Excel windows in
different Excel instances, turn off the Excel option "Windows in Taskbar"
(Tools->Options->ViewTab->WidnowsInTaskbar). Then use alt-tab to swtich
betwen Excel instances (as well as other applications), and within Excel use
Shift-F6 to switch between the windows within the Excel instance.