Excel windows on multiple monitors

image As a keen user of multiple displays – Excel really frustrates me, with its inability to open multiple windows on different displays. 

I found a hack that involved manually resizing the Excel main/parent window so that it spanned multiple displays and manually dragging Excel child windows onto other displays, which is ok, but not perfect for me.

However I also found that if you have Excel running that you can launch a second copy just fine so long as you launch it from Internet Explorer. 

Since I use Maxthon I then realised there was an even easier way, just define a new external tool as follows:

  1. Open the tools menu
  2. Open the External utilities sub menu
  3. Click +
  4. Browse to Excel.exe
  5. Save

And that’s all there is to it.  Now you can launch as many copies of Excel as you want and place them wherever you want šŸ™‚

Steve Richards

I'm retired from work as a business and IT strategist. now I'm travelling, hiking, cycling, swimming, reading, gardening, learning, writing this blog and generally enjoying good times with friends and family

4 Responses

  1. RGlazier says:

    Hi Steve,

    You can also CTRL+ click as you open Excel from the start menu. Seems to work well.

    Credit: Reader comment on Vista Clues
    http://www.vistaclues.com/reader-question-open-excel-on-multiple-monitors/

    Though I am on XP it still works fine for me.

    Thanks,

    Rob

  2. Steven, not Steve says:

    The CTRL+ click on Excel works for me, on Windows XP.

    Now if only someone can find a way to make this work for PowerPoint

  3. Stu Downes says:

    In vista start run excel.exe works well to get multiple excel sessions running for me.

  4. Here is an easy solution for you. Save the below code in notepad and name it NewExcelWindow.vbs. Then place that script file in your SendTo folder. You can then launch an Excel file by right clicking and choosing SendTo NewExcelWindow. You will then be able to move the Windows into different monitors. Developed and tested on Vista Ultimate. Verified on both x64 and x32 systems.

    ‘==========================================================================

    ‘ NAME: NewExcelWindow.vbs

    ‘ AUTHOR: Mark D. MacLachlan , The Spider’s Parlor
    ‘ URL: http://www.thespidersparlor.com
    ‘ DATE : 8/6/2008
    ‘ COPYRIGHT (c) 2008 All Rights Reserved

    ‘ COMMENT: Forces a spreadsheet to open in a new Excel process window.
    ‘ Copy this script to your SendTo directory and access via
    ‘ right click.

    ‘ THIS CODE AND INFORMATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF
    ‘ ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
    ‘ THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A
    ‘ PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

    ‘ IN NO EVENT SHALL THE SPIDER’S PARLOR AND/OR ITS RESPECTIVE SUPPLIERS
    ‘ BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY
    ‘ DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS,
    ‘ WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS
    ‘ ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE
    ‘ OF THIS CODE OR INFORMATION.

    ‘==========================================================================
    On Error Resume Next
    strFile = WScript.Arguments(0)
    Dim oXL
    Set oXL = CreateObject(“Excel.Application”)
    Set objSpread = oXL.Workbooks.open(strFile)
    oXL.Visible = True

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