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I use a two monitor system and will have MS Excel 2013 running on both. On one monitor I can select a range of numbers and the sum total will show in he status bar. When I select a cell in the workbook on my other monitor the sum total disappears. Is there a way to not have the sum total disappear?
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OMG you just saved my life with this comment. My work life has been drastically made worse by this horrible update to Excel, and I hadn't found a workaround for the last several months. I am so glad I kept reading through this thread. Thank you thank you!
I'm sorry, but all of the solutions I've seen are fairly convoluted. I don't really want to run separate instances of Excel because that would be going back to the old days when we couldn't open on two screens and had three icons for two worksheets when Alt-Tabbing - it took forever for that one to be fixed. And putting a formula in every worksheet I open is tedious. If SUM formulas can be created to solve the problem, then Microsoft should be able to fix the issue from within the application and place the result in the status bar.
I do appreciate all the suggestions, but I wish MS would just fix it.
Hi
This may help!
(I am using excel 2016)
When you have your first excel doc. open.
Press: Shift + Ctrland click on the excel icon. (you may need to press it a few times in rapid succession)
This has worked for me. You will see it works on the doc. that loads a new doc. Not the ones that open instantly.
Sadly a not a totally repayable way to do something that should never been taken out.
Hope this helps you!
Sorry, I tried this but it didn't work. When I Alt-Tab between open worksheets the sums of selected cells still disappear.
Things I've found that do work are below but they're not very elegant because you get a "PERSONAL.XLSB is locked for editing..." prompt on startup for all three options:
I'm sure MS will fix this eventually
In Windows 8, one way to start an additional instance of Excel is to press and hold the ALT key, then, without releasing the ALT key, right-click the Excel icon in the Windows taskbar and click the Excel icon above the Unpin option.
Continue holding down the ALT key until you are asked whether you want to start a new instance of Excel.
Click Yes to get a second instance of Excel up and running.
In general, anytime Excel is starting up, holding down the ALT key triggers the above dialog asking about a new instance.
There’s also a switch for booting Excel from the command prompt: /x. In Windows 8, press the Windows key and X key at the same time and then select Run.
Type excel.exe /x, and then click OK. This should launch a new instance of Excel.
It's ridiculous that this feature has been removed. I see zero benefit for removing it. Please reinsert this asap.
This is the first time I have wished for another user friendly spreadsheet software.