I bet when you double click on test.xlt, it actually creates a new workbook
named test1 (w/o the .xls extension).

If you right click on that test.xlt, you'll notice that there's a New option
(bolded) and Open (not bolded).

The bold option is the default, which means that the default action is to create
a new workbook based on this template. When you choose open, windows/excel
figures you know what you want and you want to edit the template.

I'm not sure what your other program is, but can you start excel and then create
a new workbook based on that template.

Maybe you can run a .VBS file (like an old time .BAT file) instead.

Copy this into NotePad and save this as something.VBS (change something to what
you want)

Dim XLApp
Dim XLWkb
Set XLApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
xlapp.visible = true
xlapp.workbooks.add "c:\myfolder1\myfolder2\test.xlt"

===
It works ok when I just double click on that .vbs file.

GeraldM wrote:

if i double-click an excel template e.g. test.xlt then the spreadsheet opens
as test1.xls. if i right-click-open the same template then the spreadsheet
opens as test.xlt (then same happens if i use file-open). i am trying to open
a template from another program using the command line "run test.xlt" but
this opens the spreadsheet as test.xlt and i need it to open as test1.xls (ie
like double-clicking). does anyone know how to do this - i assumed it would
have been a startup switch option but cannot find one to do this - what does
double-clicking do that right-click-open does not do?

--

Dave Peterson