Excel 2K3: Opening spreadsheet, also opens book1.xls?

[Guest]

I double click on a spreadsheet and it opens, but it also opens the default
book1.
If I only open excel and close book1 and then open a spreadsheet there is no
issue.

So why is excel wanting to open the default book when opening an already
created excel doc and second, how can I disable or resolve this issue to not
open the book1 when opening a spreadsheet but still have it open book1 when I
simply open excel only?

Thanks in advance,

Newtek

 

[Anne Troy]

You must have a book1 file in your XLSTART folder.
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/about_the_xlstart_folder_in_microsoft_excel.htm
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com
www.MyExpertsOnline.com

 

[Guest]

that would be a negative. I only have an addin for adobe acrobat and DDE.
There is no book1 or anything else. Any other thoughts?

 

[William Benson]

You can look in Tools Options General tab. Where you see "At Startup, open
all files in" ... is there a path shown there? If so, can you check that
path for a file?

Last, open Excel by double-clicking a different excel document, and when you
are at the window that says Book1, select File-SaveAs from the menu and see
is it pointing anywhere where you can see there is a Book1 Saved?

 

[Guest]

There is nothing in that field. The path shows as empty.

The save-as path is pointed to My documents which has nothing in it at all
besides windows default folders. There are no other documents in that folder
including the book1. I have done a complete search on PC and found no
documents named *book1*.

I know it seems to be a fluke, but this is happening on many and multiple
machines and I am unaware of a logical reason this is happening as there are
plenty of other PC's that have same image on them and are not affected by
this.

Thanks again and look forward to finding a solution for this.

Newtek

 

[Dave Peterson]

Look for more than one XLStart folder.

Depending on your upgrade path, you could have multiple versions.

Make sure you look for hidden folders, too.

Check each of these.

And if that doesn't help, try removing those addins and trying it. If it works
ok, put one back and test it again. (and then put back the next and test it
(and so forth...).)

Chip Pearson has some notes on how to diagnose startup errors at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

And Jan Karel Pieterse has more notes at:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/StartupProblems.htm

 

[Guest]

I have searched to include hidden files and folders and came up with nothing
in any of the folders. This is a fresh install that has been replicated
through thousands of machines via image. As noted before, this affects
multiple machines and then again does not affect others.

I will try to remove the addins, but I must say that I have tested on
multiple other PC's with the same addins that are working.

The only other thing I can think of that may be causing this is some type of
dependency that has been modified and for information that I am unaware of
may be that a new image was modified and I have not gotten verification on
this yet.

Next thought?

 

[Dave Peterson]

Next thought?

Only after you report what happens when you remove the files and test it out!

(and there might not be anything forthcoming from me!)

 

[Guest]

Dave,

My purpose in putting next thought is in hopes of getting a next suggestion
i.e. "in case that doesnt work" etc. so that I can simply move on to the next
troubleshooting step. So eaither way i thank you for your comments and the
solution that has emerged is listed below.
I removed the .XLA's as Dave had mentioned one by one. They were in 2 places
1 being under the profile and the other under the office folder. They were
the same add-ins in both places. upon removal, i found that the only way it
ended up working was if all the add-ins were removed.
Conclusion came to be that the .XLA files were of a different size and date
from the PC's files that were working properly. Once replaced with known good
files (as is typically the case) it worked flawlessly.
So somewheres within our company, someone had to have changed the image that
was being used at some point and now is creating this issue abroad with the
incorrect files.
So thanks to all for your patience and help once again,

Newtek

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you're saying you had two XLStart folders, I like to empty one and put
everything in the one that excel expects (for that version).

If you want to find out where that folder is:

Open excel
hit alt-f11 to get to the VBE (where macros live)
hit ctrl-g to see the immediate window.
type this and hit enter:
?application.StartupPath

For me (winXP and xl2003), I get:
C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART

Dave,

My purpose in putting next thought is in hopes of getting a next suggestion
i.e. "in case that doesnt work" etc. so that I can simply move on to the next
troubleshooting step. So eaither way i thank you for your comments and the
solution that has emerged is listed below.
I removed the .XLA's as Dave had mentioned one by one. They were in 2 places
1 being under the profile and the other under the office folder. They were
the same add-ins in both places. upon removal, i found that the only way it
ended up working was if all the add-ins were removed.
Conclusion came to be that the .XLA files were of a different size and date
from the PC's files that were working properly. Once replaced with known good
files (as is typically the case) it worked flawlessly.
So somewheres within our company, someone had to have changed the image that
was being used at some point and now is creating this issue abroad with the
incorrect files.
So thanks to all for your patience and help once again,

Newtek

 

[Guest]

This is a problem that is bugging me too. I always get the dreaded Book1.xls
when I open another workbook (when Excel is not open).
I have two XLStart folders. If I delete the one in Program Files\etc... the
Office installation does a repair automatically on the next startup of Excel
and the folder is recreated. If I delete the one in Documents and
Settings\etc... it gets recreated automatically when I start Excel the next
time. I don't have any Book1 files on my computer.

/Marcus