Opening file in Excel opens 2 or 3 instances of the file instead of 1.

[7flip7]

I have a user that is VERY excel heavy. She has hundres of spreadsheets that she uses on a daily basis. Recentely she called to say that when she opens certain files in Excel, she has multiple instances open. By this, I mean that the file name 'sheet.xls' shows up as 'sheet.xls:1' in Excel. If you click Window at the top to see the list of windows to switch to, you will see 'sheet.xls:1' and 'sheet.xls:2' and even sometimes a third 'sheet.xls:3'. There are only certain files that are this way. The workaround that I've found is to create a new spreadsheet and copy the data from one to the other.

Here's the details:
The files open this way on all OSes (NT, XP, 2K, 98, etc)
The files open this way on all versions of Excel (97, 2K, XP)

Is there something that my user is doing to save these files in a way that they open twice? The workaround that I found worked initially, but now I'm getting 4 or 5 a week that need to be changed so there HAS to be some reason why these start opening like this. I found no helpfull information on Microsoft's forums, but of course I have no clue what key words to search for.

Has anyone else out there run across this?

Thanks,

.oO( FLiP )Oo.
Kenneth Henrichs

 

[Dreamboat]

Open each file like that.
Go to Window and choose, for instance, :3 and then close it. Do the same for any except :1 until those items disappear.

She's opening her workbooks in a new window somehow. Anne Troy
Dreamboat@TheWordExpert.com
Anne@MrExcel.com

 

[7flip7]

Thanks for your reply, that works and it's much quicker than my work around. Any ideas on how this is happening in the first place? I can't seem to find any differences in data between the 2 or 3 instances, it just seems to be copies. Is it possible that maybe the user is opening the file 2 or 3 times, and then saving?

Thanks,

.oO( FLiP )Oo.

 

[Dreamboat]

"She's opening her workbooks in a new window somehow."

She could be opening it more than once... Anne Troy
Dreamboat@TheWordExpert.com
Anne@MrExcel.com

 

[7flip7]

That seems to be the case for 2K and XP versions of Excel, but when in the 97 version of Excel, if you open the same documents twice, it tells you that it cannot open the second instance becuase there is 'already a document open by that name'. As a matter of fact, I only get the multiple instances on 2K and XP versions of Excel and SOME versions of 97 (not sure what the difference is yet). Other versions of 97 give this message EVERY time the file is opened on them.

I think I should just have this user fired and go on with someone a little less computer savvy. Or maybe not.

Thanks again for your help,

.oO( FLiP )Oo.

 

[Dreamboat]

Fire 'em. LOL

Okay, this *could* have something to do with that *open in new window* setting under Windows Explorer. Check it out---

Open WE.
Tools-Folder options.
Files tab.
Go to excel.exe.
Hit Edit.
See if it's got that *browse in new window* or *open in new window*... option checked. Turn it off and see if it works diff... Anne Troy
Dreamboat@TheWordExpert.com
Anne@MrExcel.com

 

[xlbo]

You might also want to look at Tools>Options>General and see if the alternative startup location has been set to \...\...\..\xlstart
If the files have been saved in that folder also, they can get opened up automatically (like the personal.xls file)
May not be the problem as it's hard to do it accidentally but could be worth a look
Rgds
~Geoff~

 

[Dreamboat]

Good call, Geo. Anne Troy
Dreamboat@TheWordExpert.com
Anne@MrExcel.com