I want to open 2 excel files in separate windows to view them side by side... but each time I try, it opens them in the same window

Anonymous
2009-11-14T01:05:58+00:00

I want to open 2 excel files in separate windows to view them side by side... but each time I try, it opens them in the same window.  is there a way around this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-03-15T22:03:50+00:00

I use Windows 7 and this is what works for me (just figured it out):

1.  Open your first Excel file and place it on the screen you want

2.  Open a new Excel file from the Excel icon

3.  The new file will open on top of the one you have already opened.  Drag it to the other screen

4.  Drag the icon for the second Excel file INTO the new (blank) Excel document

Voila!  Two separate screens.

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Anonymous
2010-04-30T19:36:49+00:00

ok, just because i don't have the petiance to wait for you to answer to my first question about which excel version you'r using i'll just give my solution for all the people who have w7 and office 2007:

the solution involves making little changes in the registry so i recommend making back up for just in case:

strart - run - regedit:

Left column

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Excel.Sheet.8/shell/Open/commend:

Right column {adding (space)"%1"}

Double Click on (Default) and write - "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"

Right Click on Command – choose "rename" and add something to the name 

  • for example 2 (commend2).

Left column

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Excel.Sheet.8/shell/Open/ddeexec:

Right Click on the folder ddeexec and choose "rename" and add something to the name 

  • for example 2 (ddeexec2)

Left column

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Excel.Sheet.12/shell/Open/commend:

Right column {adding (space)"%1"}

Double Click on (Default) and write -****"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"

Right Click on Command – choose "rename" and add something to the name 

  • for example 2 (commend2).

no restart needed

Have Fun

hope i helped

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-04-18T03:24:01+00:00

    I use office 2010 n Win 7. 

    • Open any Excel file.
    • Then right click on open Excel file icon on taskbar
    • Select MS Excel 2010

    This opens two separate Excel windows.  Basically whenever you ask to launch Excel even from All Programs, or just typing in start, It will open new window. Of course the drawback is that you cannot directly open specific file in new window; but recent workbooks can be found under 'File' tab, if that was recently opened.

    Still don't understand why MS office acts so for Excel unlike Word.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-04-24T12:02:00+00:00
    1. open "Excel Options" 
    2. select "Advanced"
    3. scroll to the bottom under "General" you will see a check box with "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" - check this box and click ok

    You will now be able to open seperate instances of Excel to display multiple files on two separate screens.  This uses more memory though since you are actually opening multiple instances of Excel.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-04-24T13:53:18+00:00

    I want to open 2 excel files in separate windows to view them side by side... but each time I try, it opens them in the same window.  is there a way around this?

    Thanks for the information.  I got the answer

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