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#1
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Excel & Two Monitors
I have noticed that Excels' dialog boxes, message/input boxes and user
forms are not dependant on whether or not you have Excel "stretched" across two monitors. I was wondering if a workbook could be made to behave this way. For instance: Even though I don't have Excel "stretched" across two windows, is there anyway to "drag" a workbook onto the second monitor. Microsoft Outlook works fine like this. Open an email, drag it to your second monitor and that email behaves as if it were on only one monitor. VERY handy to keep an open email to one side while your tooling around other places. Click maximize and it zooms to the edges of ONLY the second monitor. You can "stretch" Outlook across both monitors but you don't have to in order to drag an email across both. In Excel, if you don't "stretch" it first you can't drag a workbook into the second monitor. It looks like it is going but it doesn't appear and the mouse seems locked into the boundaries of the first monitor. 2 years ago, I used a Mac with two monitors and it behaved just fine. You did not have to "stretch" anything; just drag a workbook wherever you wanted. Now, I'm working in a place that requires Windows and I've acquired a second monitor. I was looking forward to doing the old Excel tricks that I used to do on my Mac but was disappointed to find how wonky things were. Sure, the two monitors still add a lot of functionality to my spreadsheet universe but I was so spoiled with the Mac and it puzzles me that Outlook works, just like it did on a Mac but the other Office apps don't. It's NOT elegant and the whole thing about opening second instances of Excel? You've got to be kidding! How many instance of Excel does it take to screw in a light bulb? I'm hoping somebody will tell me I just have to change a setting somewhere because this feature seems to be built into Windows. Just try it with open folders on the desktop. I'm not too bad at VB maybe I could do something programmatically but I thought I would ask some of you people. I've gotten tons of good advice just searching the Excel user groups. I'm using Windows XP with Excel 2003. Thanks! |
#2
Posted to microsoft.public.excel.programming
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Excel & Two Monitors
Hi Teddy,
I have Windows 2000 and can't do that, but since you indicate you are using two monitors for Outlook then all you need to do is to use separate windows in Excel, look at the Window menu in Excel and click on New Window. Or are you doing it because you also seem to be asking for directions on Windows. It should be in Settings, Control Panel, Display, Advanced, Displays, and somewhere there you should see placement of secondary monitor location as to Top, right, bottom, left of primary monitor. You can look at different worksheets in the same or different workbook, or even different views of the same worksheet. If you look at different views of the same worksheet you will should be familiar with display and printing... Freeze Panes for view and Repeat row/col headings for printing http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/freeze.htm FWIW, Wish I could do that with my laptop and another monitor from Win2000, but I can only look at one or the other, or have same view on both and can't set resolution to match the dimensions of the external monitor. --- HTH, David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm "Teddy" wrote in message oups.com... I have noticed that Excels' dialog boxes, message/input boxes and user forms are not dependant on whether or not you have Excel "stretched" across two monitors. I was wondering if a workbook could be made to behave this way. For instance: Even though I don't have Excel "stretched" across two windows, is there anyway to "drag" a workbook onto the second monitor. Microsoft Outlook works fine like this. Open an email, drag it to your second monitor and that email behaves as if it were on only one monitor. VERY handy to keep an open email to one side while your tooling around other places. Click maximize and it zooms to the edges of ONLY the second monitor. You can "stretch" Outlook across both monitors but you don't have to in order to drag an email across both. In Excel, if you don't "stretch" it first you can't drag a workbook into the second monitor. It looks like it is going but it doesn't appear and the mouse seems locked into the boundaries of the first monitor. 2 years ago, I used a Mac with two monitors and it behaved just fine. You did not have to "stretch" anything; just drag a workbook wherever you wanted. Now, I'm working in a place that requires Windows and I've acquired a second monitor. I was looking forward to doing the old Excel tricks that I used to do on my Mac but was disappointed to find how wonky things were. Sure, the two monitors still add a lot of functionality to my spreadsheet universe but I was so spoiled with the Mac and it puzzles me that Outlook works, just like it did on a Mac but the other Office apps don't. It's NOT elegant and the whole thing about opening second instances of Excel? You've got to be kidding! How many instance of Excel does it take to screw in a light bulb? I'm hoping somebody will tell me I just have to change a setting somewhere because this feature seems to be built into Windows. Just try it with open folders on the desktop. I'm not too bad at VB maybe I could do something programmatically but I thought I would ask some of you people. I've gotten tons of good advice just searching the Excel user groups. I'm using Windows XP with Excel 2003. Thanks! |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.excel.programming
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Excel & Two Monitors
i'm not quite sure what you mean.
i have 3 monitors using winxp. i always have the workbook on the secondary monitor, the code window on the primary and i use the 3rd for notes or watching cable tv. obviously you can't drag a maximized window to another monitor. you have to click the restore down button first, then move it, then click the maximize window button. the only issue i see, is that forms always pop up on the primary, but i have no problems having multiple workbooks open. just start another excel session and you can have multiple workbooks open. or maybe you need to set the windows in taskbar option under tools/options/view. sorry for all of the options, i wasn't sure what you wanted. -- Gary "Teddy" wrote in message oups.com... I have noticed that Excels' dialog boxes, message/input boxes and user forms are not dependant on whether or not you have Excel "stretched" across two monitors. I was wondering if a workbook could be made to behave this way. For instance: Even though I don't have Excel "stretched" across two windows, is there anyway to "drag" a workbook onto the second monitor. Microsoft Outlook works fine like this. Open an email, drag it to your second monitor and that email behaves as if it were on only one monitor. VERY handy to keep an open email to one side while your tooling around other places. Click maximize and it zooms to the edges of ONLY the second monitor. You can "stretch" Outlook across both monitors but you don't have to in order to drag an email across both. In Excel, if you don't "stretch" it first you can't drag a workbook into the second monitor. It looks like it is going but it doesn't appear and the mouse seems locked into the boundaries of the first monitor. 2 years ago, I used a Mac with two monitors and it behaved just fine. You did not have to "stretch" anything; just drag a workbook wherever you wanted. Now, I'm working in a place that requires Windows and I've acquired a second monitor. I was looking forward to doing the old Excel tricks that I used to do on my Mac but was disappointed to find how wonky things were. Sure, the two monitors still add a lot of functionality to my spreadsheet universe but I was so spoiled with the Mac and it puzzles me that Outlook works, just like it did on a Mac but the other Office apps don't. It's NOT elegant and the whole thing about opening second instances of Excel? You've got to be kidding! How many instance of Excel does it take to screw in a light bulb? I'm hoping somebody will tell me I just have to change a setting somewhere because this feature seems to be built into Windows. Just try it with open folders on the desktop. I'm not too bad at VB maybe I could do something programmatically but I thought I would ask some of you people. I've gotten tons of good advice just searching the Excel user groups. I'm using Windows XP with Excel 2003. Thanks! |
#4
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Excel & Two Monitors
Thanks David and Gary for your response.
I am using a docked Dell Latitude D610 laptop.to a Dell 15" Sony Trinitron Monitor. Once the laptop is powered up it behaves as if the laptop is the only thing that is "turning on". The log in screen etc appears on the laptop monitor. This goes all the way through to the first appearance of the desktop and all the icons resuming their proper images. Then, the laptop screen goes blank, other than the deskptop pattern. A audible sound comes from the Trintiron monitor then you can see it gradually waking up. The "Main Monitor stuff (?)" like the clock strat menu and all the little icons that I would normally refer to as the "Dock" on my Mac are now on the Trinitron and I have a blank desktop pattern on the laptop. I've already set up the laptop monitors' position to be to the right. This alone is a very convenient set up. Mayn apps work intuitively with this, including XP. Open a folder, drag it to the laptop monitor, maximize it and it maximizes to the limitations of the laptop monitor. Drag it back to the Trinitron monitor and it will only maximize to the limitations of the Trinitron monitor. It will not spread out, horizontally, to fill both monitors. In Outloook, I can drag an open email to the laptop monitor, maximize it to fill THAT monitor ONLY, then I can refer to that email when looking at others or even when I'm in other apps. This same technique works in Explorer, Firefox, iTunes and who knows what else. With the exception of Outlook it does not work with the Microsoft Office apps. Before you can use two monitors with, let's say Excel, you have to first un-maximize then stretch the main screen across both monitors. Doing this you must be careful you don't drop your tabs off the bottom of the screen. You can drage a single document to one monitor or another but if you click maximize it spreads out to both. Unlike, what Outlook, Explorer or the desktop. Its very easy to get messed up and hard to manage workbooks if you're not careful. You can still get a lot of two screen convenience with Excel but you have to do a lot of draging and adjusting of windows and then this status seems very volitale. For no apparent reason a work book will be bleeding off the right side of the right monitor or drop down past the bottom or shift up past the point of being able to clikc its menu bar. If you open a second instance of Excel and put one instance on one monitor and one in the other then this solves the problem of maximizing bleeding all over the place or un-explained shape shifting. However, you don't have the convenience of dragging workbooks from one monitor to the other. You have to close it from one then reopen in the other. You can't have editable versions of the same workbook open at the same time in two different instances of Excel. What puzzles me is: 1- Dialog boxes and userforms are not stuck on one monitor or another regardless of the status of the main Excel window. 2- The two monitor convenience of dragging one doc to a second monitor for reference, copying is so obvious AND even included in Outlook and Explorer, why was it not included in the other Office apps? 3- Micorosoft DID design this into the Mac versions of Office. (which is why I'm tyring to figure this out because I absolutely loved that abiltity on my Macs and would love to be able to do this on my Windows machine!) In general, Office apps are slightly less funcional on a Mac ( have you ever created user forms with pictures on a mac? ). 4- It would be one thing if all it took was a "stretch" across two monitors but why all the squirlliness? I was looking for a magic bullet solution to this and it looks like I'll have to do it through VB. I do understand the "split screen", "new window" menu options. I used the new window option on my mac and it is a dream come true when you want to copy/compare different areas of the same worksheet (ON A MAC!). I wish I could do that same thing with Windows... I'm not one to pooh pooh one system over the other. They both have their advantages and will one day be the same (is my guess) Being a person who uses both systems A LOT I figure it will help to prevent Alzheimers which runs in my family. Again, thanks for the thoughtful responses and I hope this explains my situation better. |
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