You might try going into the file associations (via Windows Explorer -
Tools, Folder Options, File Types) and for XLS files eliminate "uses DDE"
from the Open command. Replace it with a " %1" on the command line (after
the "/e").

--
Jim
"Ron Bishop" wrote in message
...
| My users (who are accountants) use dual monitors and would like to open a
| different Excel file on each monitor for the purposes of reviewing changes
| between the two. I know that one method of doing this is by opening Excel
| twice with its shortcut, then highlighting one Excel window and opening an
| Excel file, then highlighting the other window and opening the other Excel
| file. Unfortunately, the software that my users use to organize the Excel
| files does not allow this to be done; it always opens every Excel file in
the
| first Excel window no matter which instance is highlighted. We had a
similar
| problem with Adobe Acrobat, but there is a command line switch that forces
| Acrobat to open a new instance for each file.
| Is there a similar switch for Excel, or some other method of forcing Excel
| to open a new instance of itself for each file? We are running Excel 2003
on
| Windows XP. Thank you in advance for your replies.

just what I was looking for and this one actually does work as prescribed!!
Thanks Jim and thanks to Ron for asking the question.
--
Thanks,
Ted


"Jim Rech" wrote:

You might try going into the file associations (via Windows Explorer -
Tools, Folder Options, File Types) and for XLS files eliminate "uses DDE"
from the Open command. Replace it with a " %1" on the command line (after
the "/e").

--
Jim
"Ron Bishop" wrote in message
...
| My users (who are accountants) use dual monitors and would like to open a
| different Excel file on each monitor for the purposes of reviewing changes
| between the two. I know that one method of doing this is by opening Excel
| twice with its shortcut, then highlighting one Excel window and opening an
| Excel file, then highlighting the other window and opening the other Excel
| file. Unfortunately, the software that my users use to organize the Excel
| files does not allow this to be done; it always opens every Excel file in
the
| first Excel window no matter which instance is highlighted. We had a
similar
| problem with Adobe Acrobat, but there is a command line switch that forces
| Acrobat to open a new instance for each file.
| Is there a similar switch for Excel, or some other method of forcing Excel
| to open a new instance of itself for each file? We are running Excel 2003
on
| Windows XP. Thank you in advance for your replies.