Sometimes one of these works when you're having trouble with double clicking on
the file in windows explorer:

Tools|Options|General|Ignore other applications (uncheck it)

--- or ---

Close Excel and
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /unregserver
then
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /regserver

The /unregserver & /regserver stuff resets some of the windows registry to
excel's factory defaults.

Mike wrote:

From windows explorer, when I open an XLS file, it opens a new instance of
Excel. I'd like ot have it so all the XLS files I open are in the same
instance of Excel. This used to work this way but I just got a new laptop
and an upgrade to Office 2003. How do I change Excel to get this behavior?

Thanks!

--

Dave Peterson