I saved a test book1.xls and a book2.xls in the root of C:

1. With Tools/Options/General/Ignore other applications Checked, When
clicking on the two files I get seperate instances of Excel but they are
blank, the workbooks are not open, no error messages, just Excel, with no
workbooks open.

2. With Tools/Options/General/Ignore other applications UnChecked When
clicking on the two files I get One instance of Excel with both workbooks
open in it.

Regarding Word. You are correct about word, If I click on two Word document
files and open them, then click on the Window menu item, I can see both
Windows listed. So there is only one "Instance" of Excel open.

I guess it would be best to explain what I want to happen.
I use a laptop with an external monitor, both monitors are active.
With Word I can click on two documents, when they open, they are in there
own window, I can then drag one window to one monitor and have the other on
the other monitor, just as if they were two seperate applications or two
seperate instances of Word. With Excel I cannot do that, all the documents
open in one window. I know I can tile the windows in Excel but they are too
small then. I do alot of comparisons between workbooks and the inability to
do this is really frustrating, In Word, the documentation shows a command
switch listed as /n. It says that this forces a "new" instance of Word when
ever Word is started. The Excel documentation does not mention this switch. I
have tried the switch with Excel and it works but I get a bunch of errors
before it finally opens the workbook.


--
Randy


"Dave Peterson" wrote:

Can you make a new workbook and save it to a location that contains no spaces
(no spaces within the Path and no spaces within the filename).

Does double clicking on that test workbook open in a new instance of excel?

(If the path or name contains spaces, then the warning that I included in that
first post is the problem.)

And as for MSWord.
Open two documents.
If you see two icons in the windows taskbar, try this in one of those
"instances".

Click on the Windows option on the menubar.
If you see both documents at the bottom of the dropdown, then there's only one
instance open.

In fact, you can use this to see it more clearly:
In MSWord:
Tools|options|View tab
Uncheck Windows in Taskbar.

You'll only see one icon in the windows taskbar--even though there are two
documents open in that one instance.

(Change that setting the way you like it.)

========
Excel (2k and above) also has this "Windows In Taskbar" setting
(tools|options|View tab), but it behaves differently than MSWord.

There is a difference between multiple instances of excel and windows in
taskbar, though. But maybe that Windows in taskbar will be sufficient for you.
(And uncheck that "ignore other applications" to put it back to normal.)

Randy wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply. When I uncheck the "Ignore other applications"
box, then click on an .xls file, Excel starts but does not open the file I
clicked on and does not open a new file either, nothing just Excel. I am
using Excel 2002 by the way. Also does your Word application not work the way
I described. If I click on a Word file.... Word starts and opens the file, if
I click on another Word file, another instance of Word starts and opens the
file I clicked on. I have not changed any settings in Word and this is how it
has worked from day one. Maybe the IS dept. changed it from the default
settings. I should mention that when I open Excel it does not display a
splash screen, it just opens the file I clicked on. I know there is a switch
to disable the splash screen, that is why I thought it would be a simple
matter to add the /n switch to force a "New" instance of Excel for each file
I click on. I have posted to several discussion groups and you are the first
one to think of that trick, it is almost there, but not quite. Does that work
on your machine? Thanks for the help by the way
--
Randy

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

You could try:

Tools|options|General tab|Ignore other applications (check it)

And be aware that turning this setting off sometimes gives errors with workbooks
that contain spaces in their path/name:

C:\my documents\excel\my book.xls

The error will look kind of like:
cannot find c:\my ..
then
cannot find documents\excel\my
then
cannot find book.xls

But you can always start multiple instances, then use File|open to open your
workbooks.

==
And I don't think MSWord actually works the way you describe. But with windows
in taskbar clicked, you get something that looks like what you describe--but
it's still just on instance of MSWord.




Randy wrote:

I want to be able to click an an .xls, Excel spreadsheet file and have it so
when Excel starts it will use the /n switch. I want each file I click on to
start a new instance of Excel. I can easily do this by creating a shortcut,
but I cannot seem to get it to work when I just click on a spreadsheet file.
This is the behavior that Word exhibits if I click on a Word file. I want
Excel to work the same way.
I have seen posts on other sites which have indicated registry changes. I
have tried the suggestions without success. If anyone knows of a tried and
true way of doing this I would be grateful.

Thanks
--
Randy

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson