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Mar
17
2008

Open Two Excel Windows Side by Side

posted by Eric Appel      14 Comments

One of the weird and annoying things about Excel is that it shows you an item on the Windows taskbar for each document that you have open, but it doesn't let them operate as separate windows.  If you're using dual or multiple monitors you'll notice that you can't place one document on each monitor to see them side by side because they share the same window.  The following steps will allow you to open Excel documents side by side, but they involve some tweaks to the file system settings in Windows.  If you don't fully understand the changes below I would recommend that you not make them as they will be a challenge to fix on your own and could mess up your system.  To get Excel to open documents in separate windows so you can place them independently you can do the following:

Excel 2007:

  • Click the Office Orb in the upper left corner to bring up the menu.
  • Select Excel Options from the bottom right corner of the menu.
  • Click the Advanced tab.
  • Check the "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange" box and save.

Excel Versions Prior to 2007

  • Tools|options|General tab|Ignore other applications (check it).

Then in Windows Explorer

  1. Go to Tools -> Folder Options.
  2. Select the File Types tab.
  3. Select the XLS file type and click "Advanced".
  4. Uncheck the "Browse in same window" checkbox if it is checked.
  5. Select the "Open" Action in the Actions listbox and click "Edit".
  6. In the "Application used to perform action" textbox add "%1" to the end of the line and be sure to include the quotes around the %1.
  7. Uncheck the "Use DDE" checkbox if it is checked.
  8. Click "OK" and "OK" again.
  9. Repeat steps 3-8 for the XLSX file type if you have Office 2007 installed.
  10. Click "OK" to dismiss the Folder Options dialog.
Friday, June 20, 2008 6:34:42 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I use Excel 2007 and I have selected Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange box.

After such change, when I clicked an excel file, excel window has opened but not with the actual file.
Kevin Smith
Sunday, July 13, 2008 6:14:04 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
just more proof that ms office is getting progressively worse... no way I should have to go through such pain for a simple usability improvement
pen-and-paper-ftw
Friday, August 29, 2008 11:28:28 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Thank you for the informaton!!
Thankful
Friday, October 03, 2008 6:18:45 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I followed the steps above, and now Excel 2007 will not open anything. I get an error- it's not recognizing the file extensions. Do you know what the DDE settings are in My Computer/Windows Explorer Tools Options for the .xls and .xlsx file extensions so I can put it back the way it was? I'm not sure why it didn't work.

I'd really appreciate your help if you have the time!! Thank you,
plshelp
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 3:06:28 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
This is realyy very helpful site.
manoj
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 5:14:32 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Friday, 3 October 2008 5:18:45 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
I followed the steps above, and now Excel 2007 will not open anything. I get an error- it's not recognizing the file extensions. Do you know what the DDE settings are in My Computer/Windows Explorer Tools Options for the .xls and .xlsx file extensions so I can put it back the way it was? I'm not sure why it didn't work.

I'd really appreciate your help if you have the time!! Thank you,
plshelp

:::

The above how to works perfectly. You will only get that error message if you have not followed the above how to exactly as it is written. Cheers.

_Gmonkey_
Saturday, October 18, 2008 12:09:10 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
plshelp - maybe you can try doing the following: change excel settings per above instructions, open excel either from the windows start-program list or desktop shortcut and from the open excel program, select file-open menu and then locate the file you wish to open. This works for files with either the same or different file names. No need to make any changes in IE (I am using excel 2003).
charise
Saturday, November 22, 2008 12:34:07 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
I want to know how to open the SAME document in two windows on separate monitors. I know how to open two windows of a document, but I cant split them up so that they are on different monitors. :(
Bradley
Monday, December 01, 2008 11:06:55 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Hey Gregory/gmonkey, instead of flaming PLSHELP, why don't you try to help? Your comment was not very insightful.

plshelp: Odds are what you did was you put the "%1" after the text in the ACTION box, instead of the "Application used to perform action:" box. I did the same thing at first.
Brian
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 2:15:08 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
terrific! thanks so much!
dan
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 7:41:46 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
This solution would not work for me on Windows Vista using Excel 2007. I was able to find another fairly simple solution and <a href="http://brett.batie.com/dosshell/open-excel-in-two-windows-excel-2007-vista/">posted the instruction</a>.
Brett
Monday, March 09, 2009 11:11:08 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
You sir, are a genious! Thanks alot!
Henrik
Friday, April 24, 2009 7:14:06 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
Sorry, but it did not work for me...:>(
Adriana G
Monday, July 20, 2009 4:14:47 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)
I followed your instructions and worked great. But how do I undo it? e.g. I would like to have it go back to the way it was before, when everything opened up in one Excel window. I tried doing the reverse instructions and it didn't work. Instead, when I try to open an Excel file, I get an error message that says "<file> could not be found." Check the spelling of the file name, and verify that the file location is correct." And the file fails to open.

Please help.
https://me.yahoo.com/a/rfllrqcouPGyijfGbJXDU.hB6ffT
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