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).

Why do Excel 2010 files not open in separate windows?

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There is no real solution for this — look at the most popular thread in the Office forums:

Sixteen pages of replies. 😉

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«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.»

The above is not MY answer but it works fine.

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There is no real solution for this — look at the most popular thread in the Office forums:

Sixteen pages of replies. 😉

Aren’t you making this too difficult? You open them both in the same window but you just reduce the sizes of the files within that window.

When you open an Excel file, you will notice in the top right hand corner there are 2 sets of tools to change the size of the window: The minus sign, a box and an X; one set above the other. If you click the box in lower set of tools, it will reduce the size of the active excel file. Then open a second excel file and do the same thing. Now you have 2 excel files in one window. If you then click the view tab at the top and click «arrange all» you will get the options of how to display the multiple files.

Is this what you are looking for?

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Having them in the same window and having them in two seperate windoews makes a world of diifference.

This is especially the case when you compare multiple files in different windows. You wouldnt want all the excel files to disappear when you look at another file or spend a lot of tuime adjusting all your files (excel and others) to the exact width of the screens.

Aren’t you making this too difficult? You open them both in the same window but you just reduce the sizes of the files within that window.

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Maybe I’m late with getting info to you but have been frustrated by the same problem after purchasing 2010 version.

Solution for me is to:

Open Excel and workbook appears on screen with icon at bottom.

Right click the icon and it will bring up a list of recently opened files as well as «Microsoft Excel 2010» at the bottom.

Left click «Microsoft Excel 2010» to open a new workbook that you can then drag to another screen.

Hope this works for you if I’m not too late with the response.

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I’m an IT who uses all forms of computers; Windows, Unix, and Macintosh.

It seems after a couple of changes with Windows the Explorer took over and stopped Excel from opening spreadsheets in seperate windows. but can be accomplished with some tricks, which are time consuming. shrinking the windows are not an option, so you can do side by side compare. some times you are not comparing, But you are getting data from one to put in the other, and you do not want just a portion.

believe it or not the Excel program on a Macintosh does not have this problem that the Windows version has. on the Macintosh I just double click the spreadsheet Icon and it opens in a seperate window everytime. I have had over 6 different spreadsheets open on the Mac with out any problems and was able to have them displaied over my multiple monitors as well without a problem.

deends on thype of computer you wish to run on, or have to run on to get your job done.

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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 . This its happening to me also and all the answer

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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

I don’t have 2010 but in 2007 I would go to View>Arrange All>Vertical.

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Thanks for the help , but didn’t work for me , still open in the same window , cant drag it at all

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Then you are not following the instructions

If you open an excel workbook, then start a new instance of excel (from All Programs) it will open a second instance of excel and then you use file>Open to open the file

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I try that but didn’t work , maybe I am not doing it right btw I’m using windows 8 , maybe that is one of the reason

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I followed the same instructions and it only works for the new files, but not for the older files that I had created. In the older files, they can only be able to view side by side within the same window, which is not what I want (I want them to be view in 2 different window).

Therefore, is there any settings where it will works for the older files?

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Excel SDI Interface (Single Document Interface)

Open multiple excel workbooks, each in it’s own excel interface when double-clicking. Default is to open all workbooks in the same interface, MDI (Multiple Document Interface)

i.e. Double click an Excel workbook and have it open in it’s own interface. Double clicking another workbook will open in another instance.

Windows XP (Office 2003)

1. Open excel. Open ‘Tools-Options’. Select General tab.

— Check ‘Ignore other applications’ checkbox.

2. Open file-explorer. Open ‘Tools-Folder Options’. Select File Types tab.

3. For XLS and CSV file types, perform the following.

— Highlight File type.

— Press Advanced Button

— Select the Open action and press Edit.

— Uncheck the ‘Use DDE’ Checkbox.

— In the Text Box, ‘Application used to perform action’, Add «%1» to the end.

«C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE» /e

«C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE» /e «%1»

Windows 7 (Office 2007)

1. Open Excel. Open ‘Excel Options-Advanced’.

— In General Options, Check ‘Ignore Other Applications that use DDE’.

2. Update Registry.

— Run ‘regedit’. Press Start-Run, Type Regedit

Open Excel workbooks in separate windows and view them side by side

This week we continue exploring new features in Excel 2013. This post is brought to you by Chad Rothschiller, a Program Manager in the Excel Team.

“How do I open my workbooks in separate windows?” This has been a common inquiry from many of our customers who want to look at their workbooks side by side, or spread them across more than one monitor.

Good news: starting with Excel 2013, each of your workbooks opens in its own window, similar to Word and PowerPoint today. That means that each workbook has its own ribbon and top-level window frame that you can move and resize independent from your other open workbooks. This functionality can improve multitasking, visibility, and analysis across workbooks.

In computing terminology, this is called Single Document Interface (SDI). Versions of Excel before the 2013 release used Multiple Document Interface (MDI), where all workbook windows were contained within a top-level “master” container window.

Here’s an example of four new workbooks. Note that each one has its own window and ribbon:

Microsoft Excel

Turn data into insights.

How to arrange your windows

Now that you have multiple windows, how should you arrange them? Well, there are plenty of options and below are some favorites:

Smart Snapping: Grab the top of the window, and drag it to the top, left, or right edge of your screen, then let go. The window automatically resize:

• Drag Left: Position on the left half of the screen
• Drag Right: Position on the right half of the screen
• Drag Top: Fills the entire screen

Windows Taskbar: If you hold down the Shift Key and then right click the Excel icon on the Windows Task Bar you will see options for arranging your open windows. The cool thing about these options is that if you have multiple monitors, Windows remembers each workbook’s monitor and arranges workbooks displayed within the same monitor.

Excel Ribbon: Click on View the Arrange All to see more options for arranging your workbooks:

Note that you can still create new windows (or multiple windows) showing the same workbook. Similarly, the “View Side by Side” and “Synchronous Scrolling” features work just like they used to.

Tell us what you think

Thanks for learning more about this new feature in Excel 2013. I hope you all get wonderful benefits from being able to arrange workbooks on your screens! In a future post, we’ll go into a couple more advanced topics such as “Merging Instances and Long Running Operations” and how they work with pre-existing add-ins. In the meantime, let us know in the comments how you’re planning to use this new feature or anything else you’d like to see in future versions.

—Chad Rothschiller, Excel Program Manager