Help with Default Excel file and template

[Mark McDonough]

I'm having trouble getting the default "Book1" opening when starting Excel.

I made some changes to the default template book.xlt to include the option
"Accept Labels in Formulas" among a few other changes like number formats
and the like

Since doing this, it is the template file itself Book.xlt that opens up on
starting Excel and not Book1.

I notice also that by default there are actually 2 folders named Xlstart.The
folders are:

c:\Documents\Settings\My Documents\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\Xlstart

And

c:\Program files\Microsoft office\office11\Xlstart.

The book.xlt file is in the former directory. Now I do understand that
anything in that folder will open on starting Excel but if I remove the
book.xlt from there then where should it go. I haven't deleted it from the
Xlstart directory for fear that I won't get the desired result of having
Book1 open with my changes included.

There are no excel files of any kind in the Windows Start up directory. I'm
lost - what do I do?

Why can't Microsoft simply provide an option in Tools/Options etc to make
changes to the default file I'll never know, rather than having to delve
into the bowels of MS Office to look for some obscure file and make changes
to that.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Mark.

Cheers

Mark

 

[Dave Peterson]

I like to let excel tell me what version of XLStart it wants to use:

Open excel
hit alt-f11 to get to the VBE
hit ctrl-g to see the immediate window
type this and hit enter.
?application.startuppath

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

That's where I'd keep the only files that I want opened when excel opens.

=======
After you move/delete/merge all your files into that single location, I'd double
check that the book.xlt was saved as a real template (Save as type at the bottom
of the file|saveas dialog)--not just a normal workbook with an extension of
..xlt.

=======
If that doesn't work, there may be a problem with the way windows/excel wants to
handle *.xlt files.

I'd try this next.

Close Excel and
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /unregserver
then
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /regserver

The /unregserver & /regserver stuff resets the windows registry to excel's
factory defaults.

Then try opening excel to test it out.

========

If that didn't work, you could manually change the default action of .xlt files

Close excel
start windows explorer
tools|folder options|file types tab
scroll down to the xlt extension (microsoft office excel template)
click the advanced button
click on the NEW item in the Actions box
click set as default
(ok your way out)

(If new is already the default action (bolded), then cancel your way out.)

 

[Mark McDonough]

Thanks Dave for this very informative response. Like you, I have Windows XP
and MS Office 2003. I'll give this a go tonight.

Cheers

Mark