You can create a shortcut to do this.

Right click on the desktop and choose NewShortcut
Browse to the path of your Excel.exe
At the end of the path, type a space and then /e
So it'll look something like:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e
Click Next
Give your shortcut a name
click Ok

This shortcut will open the Excel application without any
worksheets.

tod

-----Original Message-----
I would like to be able to open excel and not have a new
workbook open at the
same time. How can I have the task pane open up without
a new workbook?
.