Comments on: Opening Excel Files From Windows Explorer

By: Michelle T

Michelle T — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:37:00 +0000

Thank you!!!!! I had tried uninstalling & reinstalling Office 2010. Nothing seemed to work. All I had to do was the 1st part (uncheck the “Ignore Other Applications that use DDE”, close Excel, and dbl click my file). I would have NEVER figured this out on my own.

By: gabriel

gabriel — Sat, 28 May 2011 06:14:00 +0000

THANK YOU!!! HELPED BETTER THAN MICROSOFT WEBSITE!!!

By: MB

MB — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:33:00 +0000

I’ve just upgraded to Excel 2007 and when I open text files (.txt) in Excel through MS Explorer each one gets a new instance of Excel.exe, in 2003 they used to open as a window in the same instance and that is what I want so I can use Move or Copy Sheets to merge them. I know I can use File > Open, but how do you control whether the txt file will open with the same instance of Excel? Anyone know? Cheers, Martin.

By: larry pinsky

larry pinsky — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 05:11:00 +0000

In microsoft office excel 2000, under general options, there is no always backup tab to check. Are you aware of this default...even though I am behind the times with a later version. Is there a work around for getint this to work in excel 2000. It is in word, etc.
thank you
larry

By: FrancisH

FrancisH — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:03:00 +0000

Jon Peltier asks about mswlogo solution:
the reason why some would want to do what mswlogo says instead of simply unchecking the "Ignore Other App" is for multi-monitor setups. "Ignore Other App" is an easy way to view multiple workbooks show up on different monitors while being able to use your desktop/file shortcuts instead of having to start from the start menu.

By: SS

SS — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:58:00 +0000

thnxs. but no thnxs. .. Cut&paste of the formulas also doesnot work. It only copies the values correctly but the formulas are completely ignored. Is there a work around for this.

By: Mat

Mat — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:31:00 +0000

I have tried the solution of putting the "%1? on the end of the command line and turning off the DDE link

Which is OK if you want every document you wanted on a seperate Excel session.

I solved my problem by turning off the "Ignore other Applications" tick box on Tools -> Options -> General tab

This solved my problem, and all documents will open within the same Excel Session.

By: Sijpie

Sijpie — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:07:00 +0000

One disadvantage of opening Excel files in different instances is that yo can’t copy / paste cells with more than 256 chars between files. The contents get truncated. And with 2003 the closing issue was solved anyway. If I close a excel file from the taskbar, only that file will be closed, the other Excel files stay open.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:57:00 +0000

Thank you very much … this was driving me crazy and it worked without the path for me … again, thanks so much

By: Amudhan

Amudhan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:39:00 +0000

Thanks. Complete the task with the 1st step itself.