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May 25, 2006 at 6:39 am #2180575
Open Excel in Different Window
Lockedby ctmidnite · about 17 years, 11 months ago
I have two monitors. It’s very handy to be able to look at different sheets on different monitors. I can do this if I open two instances of Excel and then open different sheets but I haven’t been able to get Excel to open in a seperate Window if I open another sheet from within the Excel window that I’m already viewing a sheet in.
Can I force Excel to always open in a new Window?Topic is locked -
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May 25, 2006 at 8:57 am #3146497
It’s in Options
by tink! · about 17 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
you didn’t specify which version you are using but try looking under “Tools”, “Options” and click the “View” tab.
Look for “Windows in Taskbar” and CHECK the checkbox.
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May 25, 2006 at 12:33 pm #3156957
Not quite.
by ctmidnite · about 17 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s in Options
That puts two enteries in the taskbar but they are both located in the same window of Excel. If you try to drag one of two books you have open your bounderies are the Excel widow. You can’t drag one of the books out onto the desk top. You can view them side by side but only in the same window.
If you open another book by first opening another instance of Excel then you have two Excel programs running and you can drag each program where ever you like.
I do this and it works fine, it’s just that often I will have two books open before I realize I would like to view them at the same time.-
May 26, 2006 at 8:35 am #3155222
I see
by tink! · about 17 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Not quite.
I gotcha now. What you want is to have Excel open up another instance of itself when you open another sheet within Excel.
This is beyond my expertise. You will probably need to have one the of programmers here on TR see if they can work up a script for you.
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February 4, 2010 at 3:22 pm #3032409
Opening .xls &.xlsx Excel files in separate windows like you want to.
by dcrandell · about 14 years, 2 months ago
In reply to Not quite.
I too have 200+ users that are annoyed by this so Today I tested and tested until i found a solid solution. The option in excel to ?Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)? does not work, but the following does.
Step 1: Open my computer and click on Tools/ Folder Options.
Step 2: Select File Types and find XLS as well as XLSX (you will edit one at a time with same info below).
Step 3: highlight .XLS Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Worksheet & Click the Advanced button and select the Open action followed by clicking Edit.
Step 4: Delete whatever is in the ?DDE Message box?.
Step 5: Add the syntax ?%1? (with preceding space and include the quotes!) to the end of any existing string in the ?Application used to perform action:? box. (if you skip this, file names that contain spaces will not open properly)
Step 6: Save and close all and give it a try!
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April 14, 2010 at 7:00 am #3036673
Doesn’t work in Windows 7 / Office 2007
by jiaailun · about 14 years ago
In reply to Opening .xls &.xlsx Excel files in separate windows like you want to.
It looks like this solution does not work in Windows 7. I’m still learning my way around the new interface, but I don’t think you can get to the File Types dialog through Tools / Folder Options (now called Organize / Folder and Search Options). I’ve tried Control Panel / Programs / Default Programs / Set Associations, but there are no options for adding syntax or changing DDE messages.
I’ve also tried the solution posted elsewhere of checking the “Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)” in Excel Office Button / Excel Options / Advanced / General. In this case double clicking a file causes Excel to start a new instance, followed by an error message, and no file is loaded.
For now I’m living with the workaround of starting a new instance manually, and then opening the file manually in that new instance. I’d like to have a simpler way though. What good are multiple monitors when all your files open in one window?!
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June 21, 2010 at 12:00 am #2869149
XP, Vista, Win7 Solution
by mrtsherman · about 13 years, 10 months ago
In reply to Doesn’t work in Windows 7 / Office 2007
This Excel issue has driven me bonkers for years so I’ve written a little helper app that solves this problem across all MS OS’s. You can download and read up on it at my website.
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April 15, 2010 at 8:50 am #2829499
Problems with this solution
by klecon · about 14 years ago
In reply to Opening .xls &.xlsx Excel files in separate windows like you want to.
This code change worked as expected – except when trying to edit excel sheets from Sharepoint the excel workbook gets thrown to MS Word!
So, I tried to undo the code change and at the end of the Application used to peform action, I keep getting “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE” /e %1
No matter what – it keeps coming back. Now when I try to open Exel sheets, I get a lot of different errors.
Any help?
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October 11, 2010 at 8:23 am #2863614
Office Excel 2010 Win7 Solution
by kentonj123 · about 13 years, 6 months ago
In reply to Problems with this solution
I was searching for a similar solution and the fix for prior version of office
did not work for Win7. I made some changes and found a way to make it work.
Please read entire post before attempting.
Works for
Excel 2010 & Win7 (could work for 07 not tested)Open Registry Editor ver6.1
-Go to Branch:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command(Note: it doesn’t matter what is listed under default)
-Change the value command and under data remove /dde and add below
/p “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE” /e “%1”
(Note: /p switch will ignore the (default) open settings)
-Go to Branch:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec-Rename ddeexec2
-Closing: Repeat for Excel.Sheet.8 with a similar change and make sure your
file locations are properly linked if installed in a different directory. I
found that windows updates undo this change in prior versions. It may be
necessary to have a registry update to keep the change in place.
Hope you are successful and always backup your registry before changing.
Kentonj123 -
June 13, 2011 at 2:31 am #2846530
Office Excel 2010 Win7 Solution
by dpaq · about 12 years, 10 months ago
In reply to Office Excel 2010 Win7 Solution
that works perfectly – thanks. as Kentonj123 take care where the path is to the exe i.e. my path file is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE as i am running win7 32 bit.
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January 3, 2011 at 2:43 pm #2878465
That worked!
by hayyward · about 13 years, 3 months ago
In reply to Opening .xls &.xlsx Excel files in separate windows like you want to.
Thank you very much, that drove me crazy!!
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September 19, 2011 at 6:35 am #2876695
Not Working
by dmatlof · about 12 years, 7 months ago
In reply to Opening .xls &.xlsx Excel files in separate windows like you want to.
I’ve tried this and I can’t get it to work. You also say include the quotes there aren’t any shown above? What am I doing wrong?
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July 10, 2006 at 11:39 am #3210581
The trick is in the shortcut!
by smitty21 · about 17 years, 9 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
Hey ctmidnite,
I also have dual monitors & use different spreadsheets on different screens. You can force Excel to open each file in a new window by editing the “Target” in the shortcut. Just put the path to the Excel.exe in front of the path to the .xls file. Here’s what all mine look like. (I’m using Excel 2003) C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\excel.exe “c:\Documents & Settings\msmith\My Documents\test.xls”. (Make sure the path to the actual .xls file is in parenthesis) They might open on top of each other the first time but if you move one of the windows to another screen, it’ll open on that screen when you reopen it.
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July 13, 2006 at 3:03 pm #3212131
Nice
by ctmidnite · about 17 years, 9 months ago
In reply to The trick is in the shortcut!
This isn’t exactly what I asked to do but since Excel doesn’t seem to be able to be forced to open a new sheet in a new instance from inside Excel this is a good work around. Pretty slick.
I did have to but quotes around the “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\excel.exe” to get it to work for me.
I’ll spend tonight changing my shortcuts. 🙂Thanks.
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August 1, 2006 at 8:30 am #3214590
Use the File Association Settings
by frankmd · about 17 years, 8 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
You have to tell Excel not to use DDE to open the worksheet.
Open Windows Explorer, Tools, Options, File Types
Scroll down to XLS
Select Advance Button
Click on OPEN in the Actions window, Then Edit
On the 2nd line for application used add “%1″.
Make sure to put the quotes around %1.
Example …\Excel.exe” /e “%1”
Write down what you see in the DDE Section.
You will need this information if you want to return to the original settings.
Now DeSelect Use DDE
When you double click on any XLS file a separate instance of excel will run. Another advantage is that you can open more than one XLS file with the same name.-
April 26, 2007 at 10:38 pm #2537871
One Limitation to Multiple Window Instances Usage
by jjoshya-contact · about 16 years, 12 months ago
In reply to Use the File Association Settings
One thing that I noticed while using multiple instances of Excel is “lack of communication” between the two separate Excel windows. A couple of issues I faced were not being able to reference one another, and when things are copied between them the enclosed formula information is left out.
Any solution to this?
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October 12, 2007 at 6:43 am #2472405
Work Around
by frankmd · about 16 years, 6 months ago
In reply to One Limitation to Multiple Window Instances Usage
You can have Excel open in 2 different instances, but you loose the copy between worksheet options. The workaround when you know you need to features is to open the first spreadsheet, then use the File, Open to open the 2nd spreadsheet. This puts them both in the same instance and you get the full features of having them in one instance.
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October 24, 2007 at 7:11 am #2468421
Thanks but….
by jjoshya-contact · about 16 years, 6 months ago
In reply to Work Around
Thanks for the suggestion but I was trying to not work with multiple window screens within one instance of Excel running…
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July 21, 2010 at 9:33 am #2856010
don’t use in that case
by twrodke · about 13 years, 9 months ago
In reply to One Limitation to Multiple Window Instances Usage
I think you should not use multiple Excel windows if you are going to refer to a cell in one in the calculations in another. Only open separate windows if you just need to view or cut and paste from one to the other.
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March 12, 2008 at 5:26 pm #2575965
file association settings
by fischerkris · about 16 years, 1 month ago
In reply to Use the File Association Settings
I am running excel 2002. the method you mention worked great until today when I had an automatic update. now when I reset the “%1” and turned of the dde, I get a error message when double clicking on the excel file actually its about 10 error messages. I now have to open excel and then open the file I want, then open excel again and ope the next file to use them on multiple monitors…thanks for your help with this.
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March 13, 2008 at 8:25 am #2575077
re-establish defaults and how to open multiple Excel windows
by gregw · about 16 years, 1 month ago
In reply to file association settings
Go back into the file association tab, find the .xls extension and click on the advanced tab. There is a button called “Set Default”. As I recall, this is what I did after trying all of this stuff that didn’t work.
The easiest and most effective to open in multiple windows is to create a shortcut to Excel in the “Send To” folder, which is one of the right-click context menu options. This works for both Office 2003/2007.
The procedure for doing this is in a previous post of mine. Good luck.
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April 15, 2007 at 10:01 am #2531618
I understand….
by chip · about 17 years ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
understand what you’re looking for, I have the same issue.
When I first dbl-click on an .xls it opens the first instance of Excel. When I dbl-click on another .xls it opens that file in the SAME instance of Excel, although a separate workbook.
I want the 2nd file to always open in a new instance of Excel. That way I can move them around to where I want them at will. They don’t need to be in the same Excel instance window.
On a separate topic mentioned above in this thread… I have dual monitors also (very kewl, how did I ever get along w/o them!). Did you know that you can stretch the Excel window across both screens, when it’s not maximized?
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June 11, 2007 at 8:55 am #2584953
A different solution that worked for me.
by susie · about 16 years, 10 months ago
In reply to I understand….
I wanted to share this because the previously posted tips did not work for me and it was making me insane. I searched all over the internet for the fix and finally figured it out.
My Computer
Tools
Folder Options
File Types
Choose XLS
Go to AdvancedUncheck “browse in same window” in advanced window.
Then highlight Open
EditMake sure in the Action box it says &Open
Make sure in the application used to perform action it says:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE” “%1”Check the box next to use DDE
Remove anything that is in DDE Message box and DDE Application Not Running box.
Make sure the application box says: EXCEL
And in the Topic box it says: System
Hope it works for you too!
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December 15, 2007 at 1:17 pm #2637369
OMG Thank you…
by dj.hixson · about 16 years, 4 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
I was going mad having using the other not so automated solutions.
You are the best!!!
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February 4, 2008 at 7:10 am #3320210
It worked !! Thank you.
by sena_munasinghe · about 16 years, 2 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
Hi,
I had the same problem & came across your post.
And it worked fine.
Thank you,
Sena
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May 22, 2008 at 1:49 am #2464983
Thank u soooooooooooo much…..
by chaitu.musical · about 15 years, 11 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
Hiiii susie,
thank u so much for ur help. Recently I had updated
Office 2003 to 2007 (free update) …… but due to this
problem (not opening in different windows)… I was
thinking to return to 2003.
But thanks to u the solution u posted, its working
fine for me. I hope this helps for all those suffering form
the same window problem.– Chaitu
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December 2, 2008 at 7:57 am #2976617
YES!—– That worked
by dkagno · about 15 years, 4 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
Thank you, I never would have figured that out myself.
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March 21, 2009 at 1:37 pm #2773758
Thanks for this
by mpalmer_bello · about 15 years, 1 month ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
I tried it since I had this same problem and their was no suitable option with Excel that addressed it.
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May 8, 2009 at 1:11 pm #2952000
Stuck
by wb5vrd · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
One of my users wanted to use excel on multiple monitors. They took matters into their own hands and not can only open excel documents through the File/Open option, not by double clicking on the document. They said whatever they did was within excel itself. Its got me scratching my head. Any suggestions? Thanks
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July 23, 2009 at 10:12 am #3008472
by nycchic · about 14 years, 9 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
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August 28, 2009 at 12:29 pm #2999192
Open Recent Document in new window (2007)
by alvin_huff · about 14 years, 7 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
Hi this works great for opening an excel file via double clicking file or short cut, but is there a way to get an excel file to open in a new instance when selecting it from the “recent documents” under the office button within Excel. I am working with office 2007. I pin alot of excel files there and would like to be able to open and compare them across the dual screen easily.
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September 9, 2009 at 1:36 am #2755226
Thanks you
by professor-x · about 14 years, 7 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
Thanks you very much Susie, it’s a great find. Really appreciate for sharing.
Regards,
Sid
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March 16, 2010 at 7:41 am #3034755
THANKS
by brianlamo · about 14 years, 1 month ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
Three years after you posted your fix to view Excel worksheets in different windows and it STILL works. Just used your suggestion and presto: excel worksheets in different windows. THANK YOU.
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July 21, 2010 at 8:21 am #2856014
but it gets shut off when I logout
by twrodke · about 13 years, 9 months ago
In reply to A different solution that worked for me.
This solution works good but is fragile. I don’t know exactly what is happening but when I do everything you say it works good but then when I either logout out or shut down excel or even just lock my PC (via the Windows Lock function) from unauthorized accss to my work PC account Excel reverts back to opening from the same window. Why?
Is there a problem with the number of Excel/Office licenses available to our work site such that IT is running a macro or some other bot that detects these settings and resets them back to a default state?
Thanks for any information on this.
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July 13, 2007 at 2:50 pm #2576749
Open Excel in Different Window
by ferozekhan267oa · about 16 years, 9 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
Open up a new blank excel document, go to TOOLS >> OPTIONS
Under the VIEW tab put a check mark against WINDOWS IN TASKBAR >> OK
close Excel and try to open multiple excel sheets. Success is relative and sure. Wish you luck. Take care. Let me know if it works. -
July 14, 2007 at 2:43 am #2576631
Simplest Method
by jackofalltech · about 16 years, 9 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
Open first book, click on the restore button for the sheet, click on the restore button for Excel, drag Excel bottom-right corner to resize to cover both monitor, resize book to cover one screen, open other book, restore/resize to other screen.
Ralph
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September 17, 2007 at 9:51 pm #2606516
To open excel windows seperately on task bar
by sree_cr · about 16 years, 7 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
Enable checkbox in Tools> Options> View> Under Show/ “Windows in Taskbar” option to have seperate Excel windows in MS office 2000.
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October 23, 2007 at 4:48 pm #2625309
Try this… its easier.
by gregw · about 16 years, 6 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
I have tried all of these suggestions and with the exception of opening two instances of Excel, then opening the files, they just don’t do the trick. And everything takes too many clicks to get it to work.
Instead try adding the shortcut to Excel in your “Send To” so that when you right-click an Excel file, Excel is an option. It opened in separate instances of Excel, was (and is) easy to use and worked like a charm for me.
Good Luck!
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October 24, 2007 at 7:40 am #2468398
“Send To”?!?!?
by chip · about 16 years, 6 months ago
In reply to Try this… its easier.
Not to appear too Win challenged, but how do you add a shortcut to “Send to”?
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October 26, 2007 at 12:14 pm #2468117
Adding shortcuts to ‘Send To’
by gregw · about 16 years, 5 months ago
In reply to “Send To”?!?!?
‘Send To’ exists as a folder in individual user profiles (speaking of Wn2K and XP here), and is part of the “context menu” that you sometimes hear about. To get there easily, right click on your Start button and select Explore. This will bring up an eplorer window with the Start folder highlighted. The Send To folder is just above that. Create a shortcut in there to Excel. Next time you right click on an excel document and select Sent To –> Excel, it will open in a window of its own.
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June 25, 2008 at 7:40 am #2905815
thankyouthankyouthankyou
by craig · about 15 years, 10 months ago
In reply to Adding shortcuts to ‘Send To’
This is the only method that actually worked!!
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April 19, 2010 at 1:25 pm #2827394
send to – another way in Windows 7
by spleek · about 14 years ago
In reply to Adding shortcuts to ‘Send To’
This is the only solution that works in Windows 7 -thanks! But another way to get to the “Send To” folder is simply to open a window of any folder, and in the address bar, type “shell:sendto” (without quotes) – once there, add a shortcut to Excel.
I couldnt get to the send to folder from your instructions, possibly because I’ve reverted back to the XP/Classic visual style.
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June 9, 2010 at 10:10 am #3027182
Doesn’t show up in my “send to”
by jammin49 · about 13 years, 10 months ago
In reply to send to – another way in Windows 7
I followed all of the instructions, and the shortcut to excel is in the “sent to” folder. The issue is that it is not showing up as a selectable item when I right click an excel file and go to send to. Any suggestions?
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July 13, 2010 at 9:11 pm #2856449
This may be the answer
by acetangent · about 13 years, 9 months ago
In reply to Doesn’t show up in my “send to”
Go to Run, then type C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11
Copy EXCEL.EXE
Go to Run again, then type sendto
at sendto folder, paste the copied EXCEL.EXE
I hope this will do the trick coz i had the same problem as yours just a while back…
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December 12, 2007 at 6:49 am #2639500
How to do this in Vista?
by kramsey · about 16 years, 4 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
Since Windows Explorer using Vista does not have Tools, Options, File Types, how do we change the settings?
Thanks
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November 26, 2009 at 9:54 am #2839940
This worked for me.
by jorge_fava · about 14 years, 4 months ago
In reply to How to do this in Vista?
You can do this. It is in this same post.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=8&threadID=195249&messageID=2345575
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September 4, 2010 at 5:03 pm #2853081
You might like this…
by shaggy719 · about 13 years, 7 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
I use it every day, very handy.
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April 19, 2011 at 9:21 am #2882354
I felt so stupid…
by jakitron · about 13 years ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
I came here earlier to find a solution to this same problem. My job consists of a stupid number of spreadsheets and I have two monitors so I figured I ought to make use of them. I still couldn’t find a solution for Windows 7, so I finally gave in and called my institution’s HelpDesk.
“Why don’t you just open another instant of Excel?”
Oh.. Duh.
Anyway, this solution worked. Just click on the Excel icon again. Open your document from within. Problem solved, bah. -
May 2, 2011 at 8:00 am #2879859
Fix for Excel 2007!
by tom4349 · about 12 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
I stumbled onto this about 10 minutes ago while trying to find a solution like everyone else here. No scripts or other tweaking necessary!
As someone else already stated, using separate instances of excel is a bad idea, because you cannot then copy and paste between the documents or refer to the other document in a formula.
There is a solution, however!!
1)Open 2 documents in Excel, let them open in the same instance
2)Un-maximize one of the documents so that it can be moved or resized
3) Right click the title bar of that document
4)select “Arrange…”
5) select “vertical”
6) Un-maximize Excel’s window, and drag it across to cover both monitors. The documents will remain side by side!To return Excel to normal without “losing” a document in the other monitor when you resize Excel’s window back to only one monitor:
1) Right click one of the document’s title bars
2) Select “Arrange…”
3) Select “cascade”
4) Resize Excel to cover only one monitor
That’s it. Now everything is back to normal, and documents will open inside the Excel window without being “lost” on the other monitor. -
January 11, 2012 at 9:54 am #2438917
Opening Excel worksheets in separate windows
by juan pacativa · about 12 years, 3 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
On Windows 7, Open the first worksheet and then go to the ‘Start’, hold the cursor on Excel to open the sheet list and then move it over and open the second worksheet from there!
Voila!
You have two separate sheets.
Can keep on opening this way.
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February 9, 2012 at 6:42 am #2440116
Open more excel instances
by cptjacks · about 12 years, 2 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
Wow.. why has no one before me came with this solution?
It aint that hard.. just:have your first sheet opened. hold the Shift button on your keyboard and click the excel icon in your taskbar.
another instance will open. you can drag your excel file in there or use ctrl+o to get the excel sheet in there you need.
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May 10, 2012 at 3:02 am #2885085
Open spreadsheets in separate windows (Windows 7 + Excel 2010)
by cluster84 · about 11 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
The main idea is that the Excel Sheet opening policy is controlled under the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ among various other software. Since the format generally stayed the same since Excel 2007, the registry information on the settings remained the same since then too; the key Excel.Sheet.12 controls the opening of .xlsx files and the Excel.Sheet.8 the Excel 97-2003 format (.xls).
As the manual describes for Excel 2007(http://blog.whitesites.com/Force-Windows-7-to-open-excel-documents-in-separate-windows__634014706378053750_blog.htm), it is possible to configure for 2010, as well; see the steps below:– Under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command\ modify the value of (Default) from “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE” /dde to “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE” /dde ???%1???.
Do not modify what is already there just add the ???%1??? to the end!
– Rename the key command to command2
– Rename the key ddeexec to ddeexec2
This will cause Excel to open the .xlsx files in a new window every time. Perform the same modification in the Excel.Sheet.8 key (the structure and the procedure is the same) and you???ll have Excel to open .xls files in separate windows as well. -
May 22, 2012 at 1:00 pm #2435207
Openning Excel files in separate windows
by mondlemm · about 11 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Open Excel in Different Window
susie@’s post worked for me. Dcrandell’s post suggested the same; however, on Dcrandell’s post “?” confused me and susie@’s post cleared that out. Thanks to both of you for the great solution without touching the reg key
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