Registry Keys for Excel (2003/sp1)

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Hi there,

Can anyone point me in the direction of the correct registry key to export if I want to change options within the Tools menu of Excel, e.g., deselect items on the View tab?

Many thanks,

Violet

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Not quite sure what you are after. You can do it via View – toolbars – cusomize direcly in Excel.

XL-VB can also modify it in code if desired. It does not require any registry changes

Steve

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Most of those options are stored in

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0ExcelOptions

(11.0 is the version number for Office 2003; for Office XP, it’s 10.0 etc.)

Some of the values are easily readable, such as DecimalSeparator and DefaultPath, but there are also values such as Options, Options3, Options6 and Options95 that combine different settings in one number.

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Hi Hans,

Specifically, I’m trying to deselect “Startup Task Pane”, change the Dictionary Language to English (UK). I’ve just noticed, however, trying to do a similar thing with Word .reg keys I’ve been able to deselect some of the settings I want to, but not others like deselecting Startup Task Pane, Smart Tags and some others. Are these things which can’t be deselected by .reg files perhaps?

Thanks – look forward to your reply,

Violet

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“Show the task pane at startup” is stored in the StartupDialog value HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0ExcelOptions. 0 = No, 1 = Yes.
I’m not sure where specific Smart Tag settings are stored – there is a value RecognizeSmartTags in the above key, and there are some settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOfficeCommonSmart Tag, but I don’t know their purpose.
Do you really need to change this using registry files? A macro would be easier.

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I’ll have a look at that now.

I’d prefer to use a reg file – we are upgrading some 500 users’ desktops over the next few weeks. When it comes to office we have a batch file which runs an .exe file to place our company templates on to users’ C: drives and we also use .reg files to change certain settings and options, only within Word until now. I have a working .reg key to change some Outlook options and the .reg key I’ve extracted for Word changes some settings but not all.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Violet

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Word is a problem in that many settings are contained in the HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0WordData key, in two binary values that are not easily interpretable. You may be able to use a group policy to apply Office settings – see Administrators can use Office policy templates with the Group Policy settings of Windows, but I don’t have any experience with that myself.

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These are the two keys I’m using for Word but, as you say, they don’t do everything I want and aren’t easy to breakdown! I’ll try a macro, see how that goes.

Thanks again,

Violet

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