Make a Windows taskbar button to open an Excel worksheet?

  • Thread starter Clueless in Seattle
  • Start date
C

Clueless in Seattle

I have a particular Excel 97 spreadsheet that I use everyday, and
which I access countless times each day.

The way I get to it each time I want to use it, is to first click the
Microsoft Excel button on the Windows 98 task bar, and then in Excel I
click the "Window" menu button at the top of the screen, and finally
click the name of the my Excel worksheet.

That makes three clicks (along with the wait time after each click on
this yard sale P-133 of mine).

I'm wondering if there might be a way that I could create a button or
icon on my Windows 98 taskbar or in my system tray that, when clicked,
would take me directly to my much used worksheet each time I need to
access it.
 
M

mzehr

Hi,
Go to your desktop, right click, select Create new
shortcut, and Browse to find the file name and select it.
When you click on the new icon, it will take you directly
to your file.
Note though that the file must me stored in the same place
every time for this to work.

HTH
 
C

Clueless in Seattle

Thanks Mezer!

I think you've got me a third of the way there. I dragged the
shortcut to my "Start" button and now it appears on my Win 98 Start
menu.

Do you know if there's a way to put it on the Win 98 taskbar, so I
won't have to click the start button first? (Maybe this is a question
that I would do better to post in the Win98 newsgroup).

But gettting back to Excel, do you know if there's a way to create a
shortcut to a specific worksheet within and Excel workbook? In this
case I would like the shortcut to always open Sheet 1 (and to be even
more specific, I would like it to open on column A). Is there a macro
language or something that can accomplish that?

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"
 
C

Clueless in Seattle

Hi again, Mzehr!

After setting up the shortcut per your instructions I've discovered
that it has one glitch in it:

When I click it I get an Excel error message telling me the file is
already open and asking me if I want to replace the data in the open
file. Then I have to click "No" before I can even see the worksheet
I'm after.

So, It looks like I'm I'm still one (or two) click away from the
one-click shortcut I'm trying to create.

However I do have good news too!

I found the info I needed on the web so that I now have the shortcut
on my Windows 98 "Quick Launch" toolbar. Now all I have to do is
figure out how to get it to take me to the already open Excel file
(And to Sheet 1 within that file if that's possible).

Any ideas?

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"
 
M

mzehr

Hi Will,
Sorry for the delay. Didn't see your response until now.
I don't know why you are getting that error message about
the file already being open (Is is really open?). I have
never run into that, and regularly use that shortcut
without any problem.
As far as having the worksheet open to sheet one, you will
either need to remember to be on worksheet one when you
save it, or use a VBA event macro.

From John Green's Post
In all versions of Excel, you can create a macro called
Auto_Open that will
run when the workbook is opened. In Excel 5/95/97, insert
a module if
necessary and start your code with:

Sub Auto_Open()

you can also use the Workbook Open event procedure in
Excel 97. Use Alt+F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor
window. Use Ctrl+R to open the Project Explorer window, if
necessary. Double click the ThisWorkbook object to open
it's code module. Select Workbook from the drop
down menu at the top left of the module to create the
Workbook_Open event procedure - and enter your code,

Sub Auto_Open()
Sheets("Sheet1").Select
End Sub
 
G

Gord Dibben

Will

See answers in-line below.........

Try re-registering Excel

Close Excel first and
On the Windows Taskbar

1 ) Start>Run "excel.exe /unregserver"(no quotes)>OK.
2) Start>Run "excel.exe /regserver"(no quotes)>OK.

Note the space between exe and the slashmark(/)

You might have to designate a full path to excel.exe.

In that case Start>Run "C:\yourpath\excel.exe /regserver"(no quotes)>OK.

You will get the "preparing to install" message and the "please wait while
configuring etc."

Let it run the course and you should be good to go.

Also with Excel open go into Tools>Options>General and uncheck "ignore other
applications".

Excel file
Click to expand...

See above....

Mzehr addresses that with his Auto_open code.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP
 
C

Celtic_Avenger

Create the shortcut.....as mentioned above....then simply drag tha
shortcut to the taskbar.......remember to unlock the taskbar first i
using XP.

Celtic_Avenge
 
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