Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Excel shortcut/Multiple windows weirdness
Hi,
I'm using excel 2000 and I coudl swear that until today, when I dbl-clicked on various shortcuts on my desktop or explorer to xls files, each would open a new instance of excel, so I could move the individual windows around my desktop or close one and the others would remain open. Tonight, however, this isn't the case. All the shortcuts I click on, open a new excel file, but they all open within a single instance of excel. The taskbar shows as many excel buttons as files I have open, which is fine, but I want them to be actually separate instances or at least windows that I can move around individually. Any way to accomplish this? Just to be on the safe side, I already ran excel.exe /regserver and that didn't help either. I also tried checking the "ignore other applications" box in tools/options/general, which resulted in excel starting up when I'd click on a shortcut but the document itself not being open (I'd get a gray screen in excel's client area). Exactly what does this option do and how does it affect me? I also had some real weirdness when double clicking on files with multi-word names in explorer (i.e. "alex to do.xls" would give me an error because "alex.xls" couldn't be opened, then "to.xls" and finally "do.xls"). What I'd like to see happen is that if I have 3 shortcuts on my desktop to separate excel documents, and I double click on each of them, each opens a new instance of excel. Interestingly, this is the way Word behaves in this computer, and I honestly hope that I'm not hallucinating when I say that that's how excel behaved until tonight. Thank you for your help!!!! Alex |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Tools--Options, View tab. Uncheck Windows in taskbar.
************ Anne Troy www.OfficeArticles.com wrote in message oups.com... Hi, I'm using excel 2000 and I coudl swear that until today, when I dbl-clicked on various shortcuts on my desktop or explorer to xls files, each would open a new instance of excel, so I could move the individual windows around my desktop or close one and the others would remain open. Tonight, however, this isn't the case. All the shortcuts I click on, open a new excel file, but they all open within a single instance of excel. The taskbar shows as many excel buttons as files I have open, which is fine, but I want them to be actually separate instances or at least windows that I can move around individually. Any way to accomplish this? Just to be on the safe side, I already ran excel.exe /regserver and that didn't help either. I also tried checking the "ignore other applications" box in tools/options/general, which resulted in excel starting up when I'd click on a shortcut but the document itself not being open (I'd get a gray screen in excel's client area). Exactly what does this option do and how does it affect me? I also had some real weirdness when double clicking on files with multi-word names in explorer (i.e. "alex to do.xls" would give me an error because "alex.xls" couldn't be opened, then "to.xls" and finally "do.xls"). What I'd like to see happen is that if I have 3 shortcuts on my desktop to separate excel documents, and I double click on each of them, each opens a new instance of excel. Interestingly, this is the way Word behaves in this computer, and I honestly hope that I'm not hallucinating when I say that that's how excel behaved until tonight. Thank you for your help!!!! Alex |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Hi Anne,
If anything, what you suggest would result in the oposite of what I want, wouldn't it? I tried it anyway, and I get the shortcuts to open all the documents using the same instance but there's only one icon in the taskbar for 3 documents. I did a bit of tweaking, as follows: Checked the "Ignore other applications" box in settings/general. Went to explorer's file associations, and disabled DDE there. I also added quotation marks around the %1 after excel (that took are of the problem I was having with files with multi-word names. Seems to be doing what I want, except that if I click on a shortcut more than once, excel tries to open a file that's already open in another instance, a second time. Am I going in the right direction here? Thanks! Alex |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Hi Anne,
If anything, what you suggest would result in the oposite of what I want, wouldn't it? I tried it anyway, and I get the shortcuts to open all the documents using the same instance but there's only one icon in the taskbar for 3 documents. I did a bit of tweaking, as follows: Checked the "Ignore other applications" box in settings/general. Went to explorer's file associations, and disabled DDE there. I also added quotation marks around the %1 after excel (that took are of the problem I was having with files with multi-word names. Seems to be doing what I want, except that if I click on a shortcut more than once, excel tries to open a file that's already open in another instance, a second time. Am I going in the right direction here? Thanks! Alex |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Sorry. You're right. I'm thinking you don't want what I use, and mine's
checked. But you do want to see the windows, so... What all the rest of it has to do with this question, I don't know; they seem unrelated. Please UNCHECK ignore other applications because it usually causes problems. Windows has a setting under My Computer, Tools--Folder options, General tab, for whether you want to single-or double-click a file to open it. You should visit that. Otherwise, if you're still not seeing multiple windows in the taskbar, and you've got it checked, then likely it's something else with Excel, and here's some troubleshooting steps: http://www.officearticles.com/excel/...soft_excel.htm ************ Anne Troy www.OfficeArticles.com wrote in message ups.com... Hi Anne, If anything, what you suggest would result in the oposite of what I want, wouldn't it? I tried it anyway, and I get the shortcuts to open all the documents using the same instance but there's only one icon in the taskbar for 3 documents. I did a bit of tweaking, as follows: Checked the "Ignore other applications" box in settings/general. Went to explorer's file associations, and disabled DDE there. I also added quotation marks around the %1 after excel (that took are of the problem I was having with files with multi-word names. Seems to be doing what I want, except that if I click on a shortcut more than once, excel tries to open a file that's already open in another instance, a second time. Am I going in the right direction here? Thanks! Alex |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Hi Dave,
Trying to fix the other problem I found the solution for this one. Open explorer, go to tools/Folder Options/File Types Scroll down to xls. Click on the Advanced button. Select Open from the list and then click Edit. Edit the "Application used to perform action". change %1 with "%1" (add quote marks). That should take care of your problem. Alex Dave Peterson wrote: If I want separate instances, I'll either use a shortcut to excel.exe that I put on the desktop (or just windows start button|Run|Excel). Then I'll do the File|open within that instance. I've always had trouble when the file names contain spaces. Are you sure that you're not just clicking on new shortcuts that contain spaces--and the old ones didn't? |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
I tried that and the file opened, but I got a lot of error messages, too--when
the path contained spaces. (But glad it worked ok for you.) wrote: Hi Dave, Trying to fix the other problem I found the solution for this one. Open explorer, go to tools/Folder Options/File Types Scroll down to xls. Click on the Advanced button. Select Open from the list and then click Edit. Edit the "Application used to perform action". change %1 with "%1" (add quote marks). That should take care of your problem. Alex Dave Peterson wrote: If I want separate instances, I'll either use a shortcut to excel.exe that I put on the desktop (or just windows start button|Run|Excel). Then I'll do the File|open within that instance. I've always had trouble when the file names contain spaces. Are you sure that you're not just clicking on new shortcuts that contain spaces--and the old ones didn't? -- Dave Peterson |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Windows in TaskBar in Excel doesn't Work the Same as in Word | Excel Discussion (Misc queries) | |||
Windows in TaskBar in Excel doesn't Work the Same as in Word | Excel Discussion (Misc queries) | |||
windows explorer to excel | Excel Discussion (Misc queries) | |||
Excel startup switches | Excel Discussion (Misc queries) | |||
Excel 2003 Slowness problem in Windows XP | Excel Discussion (Misc queries) |