Open multiple Excel spreadsheets in different windows

I love working on a dual monitor system – it allows me to analyze a lot of information side-by-side at the same time. But the application that could most take advantage of two monitors, Excel, always wants to open spreadsheets in the same window, which I find silly.

I found a way to trick Excel into opening a second spreadsheet in another window, here’s how:

  1. Open your first Excel file as you would normally.
  2. Select File > Open, then browse to the second file you would like to open.
  3. Right-click the second file and select Open.
  4. The second file will open in its own Excel window and then you can move the window to your second display and view both spreadsheets side-by-side.

Posted by Brad Benner in Technical on 30 September 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Open multiple Excel spreadsheets in different windows”

  1. I was searching through a lot of forums on this problem and this quirky trick was the only thing that worked.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Posted by Justin on 12 October 2009 at 7:38 am

  2. I have Office 2007 so File > open and all that stuf is imposoble

    Posted by Sandra on 21 October 2009 at 3:47 pm

  3. Sandra, this process works with Office 2007. You just need to click the round Office icon (in the upper left corner of Excel), then select Open.

    Posted by Brad Benner on 21 October 2009 at 4:26 pm

  4. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

    Finally!!!! It works.

    Mind you, just file-open-click doesn’t work… you need to do file-open-right-click-open. God, why did they have to complicate things so much!

    Posted by Vitali on 19 December 2009 at 6:33 pm

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