Open Excel files in new window

When I have Excel running and I double click an Excel file in Windows explorer, I'd like it to launch in a new window by default so that I can move documents to separate monitors. Is there any way to get this behavior?

Solution 1:

I've had this problem too. Here's what I did:

In Excel 2003, go to Tools -> Options -> General tab.

Make sure the option, ‘Ignore other applications’ is checked.

In Excel 2007 & 2010, Click the Office button -> Excel Options -> Advanced.

Under General, check ‘Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange’.

I don't know why this isn't built in. Source: http://www.lytebyte.com/2008/05/13/how-to-open-two-excel-files-side-by-side-in-separate-monitors/

Solution 2:

It's a bit back to front, and will work for any program not just Excel, but I middle-mouse-button click the Excel icon in the Windows 7 Taskbar and create a new instance of Excel, then open the documents in each instance of Excel.

Once your have multiple instances of Excel running you can arrange them side by side by holding down Shift and right clicking on the icon:

Solution 3:

There are certain disadvantages to having all your workbooks opened in different windows. For one thing, if you write a formula in one workbook which references another, it will include the full file path of the other workbook. For another, copy/pasting from one workbook to another reduces the number of options available for the destination data, like keeping the column widths, etcetera. It's possible that for your purposes those things won't matter much, but basically if you experience any "weird" behavior when using multiple workbooks in multiple windows, you might try opening them in the same window to see if the weirdness goes away.

My preference is to leave the default behavior to open Excel workbooks in the same window, and when I want individual workbooks opened in different windows I right-click the file and select "Open in new window". In order to do that, I wrote this small utility. It's free. Feel free to install it.

Solution 4:

I followed the guide published here.

In short:

1. Open regedit (win+R, regedit)
2. Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Excel.Sheet.12/shell/Open/command
3. In the tab on the right:
   • Right click on (Default), select Modify..., append a space followed by "%1" (including quotes)
   • Rename command into command2
4. In the tab on the left:
   • Just below the command folder (whose name is left untouched),
     Rename ddeexec into ddeexec2
5. Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Excel.Sheet.8/shell/Open/command
6. Repeat step 3 and 4
7. If you want this to be valid also for csv files,
   Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Excel.CSV/shell/Open/command
8. Repeat step 3 and 4 (or just repeat step 6 :) )

This worked for Microsoft Excel 2007. In case of update you might have to repeat these steps.

I personally liked this manual approach because is reversible. With respect to some of the other proposed solutions, I love the fact that you can so easily open 2 files with the same name.