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We recently looked into how to open multiple Excel workbooks side by side at the same time. But there is another non-standard, but common task – to open Excel 2010 or 2007 workbooks in different windows. I have read all the complaints and solutions on the Microsoft Office forums. In this post, I will try to talk about the easiest ways to do this without fiddling with the registry.
Method number one – the Excel icon on the taskbar
Open the first Excel workbook, and then use one of the following four options to open the second workbook in a new window:
- Right-click on the Excel icon on the taskbar and select Microsoft Excel 2010 (or 2007): Then go to the menu Fillet (File) > Open (Open) and select your second book.
- Click the program icon on the taskbar while holding down the Shift. Then open the second book in a new window.
- If your mouse has a wheel, click the wheel on the Excel icon on the taskbar.
- If you have Windows 7 or earlier installed, you can navigate to the menu Home (Start) > All programs (All programs) > Microsoft Office > Excel or just type “Excel” in the search bar and click on the program icon. This way the application will always open in a new window.
Method two – Excel shortcut
- Open the folder where Office is installed. Default path for Excel 2010: C:/Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office 14. If you have Excel 2007 installed, then the name of the last folder will not be Office 14, but Office 12.
- Find the file Excel.exe and right click on it.
- Select an option Create shortcut (Create Shortcut) and send it to the desktop.
Whenever you need to open a new Excel document, double click on this shortcut.
If you often need to open multiple Excel workbooks at the same time, take a look at this non-standard solution suggested on one of the forums. In fact, the solution is much simpler than it might seem at first glance. Just try:
- Follow the steps above to create an Excel shortcut.
- Open the folder on your computer: C:/Users/UserName/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/SendTo.
Note! Folder AppData is hidden. To make it visible, in the Control Panel select Folder options (Folder Options), go to the tab View (View) and enable the option Show hidden files, folders or drives (Show hidden files, folders and drives).
- Paste shortcut into folder SendTo.
Now you don’t have to open the second workbook inside Excel. It is enough to right-click on the file that you want to open in a new window and select the item from the context menu SendTo (Submit) > Excel.
Other Ways to Help You
There are two other solutions that a lot of people use. One of them is to select the option Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) (Ignore DDE requests from other applications), which is located in the Excel options on the tab Advanced (Optional) in the section General (General). Another way involves changing the registry.
By working in Excel in two different windows, many tasks become much easier. Viewing files side by side takes up a lot of space and isn’t always the best option. The benefits of two files include more than just being able to compare or view sheets side by side. If the data in at least one file has been corrupted, you will not be able to open other documents in new windows.