Opening multiple instances of Excel

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Hi
Sometime ago I requested a module for deduping data.
Hans replied with with a very good module that he suggested I save as a “personal” file and locate it in the Excel startup folder. This works great for me. However, I have a user that is required to have multiple instances of Excel running but whenever he runs more than one he gets a Dialogue box that informs him that the Persoal file is being used by someone else and can only be opened as read only. This caused him to lose a lot of data as he had to shut down in a hurry and overlooked the message to save his file before exiting. I know, doh! but it happens to us all at times.

Can anyone suggest how we can overcome this problem? I am running MSO 2003 & xppro the other user MSO2007 & xppro

cheers

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I have a user that is required to have multiple instances of Excel running

Why is that? Excel is able to open many workbooks within a single instance. Running multiple instances is a waste of resources.

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Hi Hans

He is the IT Manager and that is the way he likes to work

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He’ll either have to change his ways or learn to live with the read-only limitation.

Personal.xls is meant as a macro container only anyway, one shouldn’t store any data in it.

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Hans

That is right. However, because of where it is stored it opens everytime Excel is run.

I have tried saving it as an Excel template, but this doesn’t seem to work.

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Personal.xls should be hidden. If it is visible:
– Activate Personal.xls.
– Select Window | Hide.
– Quit Excel.
– Answer Yes to the prompt to save changes to the Personal Macro Workbook.

Next time Excel is started, Personal.xls will be opened invisibly. The macros it contains will be available.
Starting a second instance of Excel will still cause the dialog about opening Personal.xls read-only, whether it’s hidden or not.

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Hans thanks for that

I get the error message stating that a document with the same is already open you cannot open 2 documents with the sane name.

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When do you get that error?

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Hans

When Excel started/opened.

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Have you somehow ended up with two copies of Personal.xls in different startup folders, for example in the XLStart folder and in the folder specified in the General tab of Tools | Options…?

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Hans

You are right on the button once again. Don’t understand how acopy of personal.xls got into that folder!

Thanks again

Phil Carter

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