Excel shortcut/Multiple windows weirdness
 

Hi,

I'm using excel 2000 and I coudl swear that until today, when I
dbl-clicked on various shortcuts on my desktop or explorer to xls
files, each would open a new instance of excel, so I could move the
individual windows around my desktop or close one and the others would
remain open.

Tonight, however, this isn't the case. All the shortcuts I click on,
open a new excel file, but they all open within a single instance of
excel. The taskbar shows as many excel buttons as files I have open,
which is fine, but I want them to be actually separate instances or at
least windows that I can move around individually.

Any way to accomplish this?

Just to be on the safe side, I already ran excel.exe /regserver and
that didn't help either.

I also tried checking the "ignore other applications" box in
tools/options/general, which resulted in excel starting up when I'd
click on a shortcut but the document itself not being open (I'd get a
gray screen in excel's client area). Exactly what does this option do
and how does it affect me?

I also had some real weirdness when double clicking on files with
multi-word names in explorer (i.e. "alex to do.xls" would give me an
error because "alex.xls" couldn't be opened, then "to.xls" and finally
"do.xls").

What I'd like to see happen is that if I have 3 shortcuts on my desktop
to separate excel documents, and I double click on each of them, each
opens a new instance of excel.

Interestingly, this is the way Word behaves in this computer, and I
honestly hope that I'm not hallucinating when I say that that's how
excel behaved until tonight.

Thank you for your help!!!!

Alex

Tools--Options, View tab. Uncheck Windows in taskbar.
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I'm using excel 2000 and I coudl swear that until today, when I
dbl-clicked on various shortcuts on my desktop or explorer to xls
files, each would open a new instance of excel, so I could move the
individual windows around my desktop or close one and the others would
remain open.

Tonight, however, this isn't the case. All the shortcuts I click on,
open a new excel file, but they all open within a single instance of
excel. The taskbar shows as many excel buttons as files I have open,
which is fine, but I want them to be actually separate instances or at
least windows that I can move around individually.

Any way to accomplish this?

Just to be on the safe side, I already ran excel.exe /regserver and
that didn't help either.

I also tried checking the "ignore other applications" box in
tools/options/general, which resulted in excel starting up when I'd
click on a shortcut but the document itself not being open (I'd get a
gray screen in excel's client area). Exactly what does this option do
and how does it affect me?

I also had some real weirdness when double clicking on files with
multi-word names in explorer (i.e. "alex to do.xls" would give me an
error because "alex.xls" couldn't be opened, then "to.xls" and finally
"do.xls").

What I'd like to see happen is that if I have 3 shortcuts on my desktop
to separate excel documents, and I double click on each of them, each
opens a new instance of excel.

Interestingly, this is the way Word behaves in this computer, and I
honestly hope that I'm not hallucinating when I say that that's how
excel behaved until tonight.

Thank you for your help!!!!

Alex

Hi Anne,

If anything, what you suggest would result in the oposite of what I
want, wouldn't it?

I tried it anyway, and I get the shortcuts to open all the documents
using the same instance but there's only one icon in the taskbar for 3
documents.

I did a bit of tweaking, as follows:

Checked the "Ignore other applications" box in settings/general.
Went to explorer's file associations, and disabled DDE there.
I also added quotation marks around the %1 after excel (that took are
of the problem I was having with files with multi-word names.

Seems to be doing what I want, except that if I click on a shortcut
more than once, excel tries to open a file that's already open in
another instance, a second time.

Am I going in the right direction here?

Thanks!

Alex

Hi Anne,

If anything, what you suggest would result in the oposite of what I
want, wouldn't it?

I tried it anyway, and I get the shortcuts to open all the documents
using the same instance but there's only one icon in the taskbar for 3
documents.

I did a bit of tweaking, as follows:

Checked the "Ignore other applications" box in settings/general.
Went to explorer's file associations, and disabled DDE there.
I also added quotation marks around the %1 after excel (that took are
of the problem I was having with files with multi-word names.

Seems to be doing what I want, except that if I click on a shortcut
more than once, excel tries to open a file that's already open in
another instance, a second time.

Am I going in the right direction here?

Thanks!

Alex

Sorry. You're right. I'm thinking you don't want what I use, and mine's
checked. But you do want to see the windows, so...

What all the rest of it has to do with this question, I don't know; they
seem unrelated. Please UNCHECK ignore other applications because it usually
causes problems.

Windows has a setting under My Computer, Tools--Folder options, General
tab, for whether you want to single-or double-click a file to open it. You
should visit that.

Otherwise, if you're still not seeing multiple windows in the taskbar, and
you've got it checked, then likely it's something else with Excel, and
here's some troubleshooting steps:
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/...soft_excel.htm
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com


wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi Anne,

If anything, what you suggest would result in the oposite of what I
want, wouldn't it?

I tried it anyway, and I get the shortcuts to open all the documents
using the same instance but there's only one icon in the taskbar for 3
documents.

I did a bit of tweaking, as follows:

Checked the "Ignore other applications" box in settings/general.
Went to explorer's file associations, and disabled DDE there.
I also added quotation marks around the %1 after excel (that took are
of the problem I was having with files with multi-word names.

Seems to be doing what I want, except that if I click on a shortcut
more than once, excel tries to open a file that's already open in
another instance, a second time.

Am I going in the right direction here?

Thanks!

Alex

If I want separate instances, I'll either use a shortcut to excel.exe that I put
on the desktop (or just windows start button|Run|Excel).

Then I'll do the File|open within that instance.

I've always had trouble when the file names contain spaces.

Are you sure that you're not just clicking on new shortcuts that contain
spaces--and the old ones didn't?



wrote:

Hi,

I'm using excel 2000 and I coudl swear that until today, when I
dbl-clicked on various shortcuts on my desktop or explorer to xls
files, each would open a new instance of excel, so I could move the
individual windows around my desktop or close one and the others would
remain open.

Tonight, however, this isn't the case. All the shortcuts I click on,
open a new excel file, but they all open within a single instance of
excel. The taskbar shows as many excel buttons as files I have open,
which is fine, but I want them to be actually separate instances or at
least windows that I can move around individually.

Any way to accomplish this?

Just to be on the safe side, I already ran excel.exe /regserver and
that didn't help either.

I also tried checking the "ignore other applications" box in
tools/options/general, which resulted in excel starting up when I'd
click on a shortcut but the document itself not being open (I'd get a
gray screen in excel's client area). Exactly what does this option do
and how does it affect me?

I also had some real weirdness when double clicking on files with
multi-word names in explorer (i.e. "alex to do.xls" would give me an
error because "alex.xls" couldn't be opened, then "to.xls" and finally
"do.xls").

What I'd like to see happen is that if I have 3 shortcuts on my desktop
to separate excel documents, and I double click on each of them, each
opens a new instance of excel.

Interestingly, this is the way Word behaves in this computer, and I
honestly hope that I'm not hallucinating when I say that that's how
excel behaved until tonight.

Thank you for your help!!!!

Alex

--

Dave Peterson

Hi Dave,

Trying to fix the other problem I found the solution for this one.

Open explorer, go to tools/Folder Options/File Types

Scroll down to xls.

Click on the Advanced button.

Select Open from the list and then click Edit.

Edit the "Application used to perform action". change %1 with "%1" (add
quote marks).

That should take care of your problem.

Alex



Dave Peterson wrote:
If I want separate instances, I'll either use a shortcut to excel.exe that I put
on the desktop (or just windows start button|Run|Excel).

Then I'll do the File|open within that instance.

I've always had trouble when the file names contain spaces.

Are you sure that you're not just clicking on new shortcuts that contain
spaces--and the old ones didn't?

I tried that and the file opened, but I got a lot of error messages, too--when
the path contained spaces.

(But glad it worked ok for you.)

wrote:

Hi Dave,

Trying to fix the other problem I found the solution for this one.

Open explorer, go to tools/Folder Options/File Types

Scroll down to xls.

Click on the Advanced button.

Select Open from the list and then click Edit.

Edit the "Application used to perform action". change %1 with "%1" (add
quote marks).

That should take care of your problem.

Alex

Dave Peterson wrote:
If I want separate instances, I'll either use a shortcut to excel.exe that I put
on the desktop (or just windows start button|Run|Excel).

Then I'll do the File|open within that instance.

I've always had trouble when the file names contain spaces.

Are you sure that you're not just clicking on new shortcuts that contain
spaces--and the old ones didn't?




--

Dave Peterson