Undo jumps between multiple open workbooks

[John H]

Hi. Our users have recently upgraded from office 2000 to Office 2007. One
has to get a set of totals from one workbook into another. He is finding
that if he has two workbooks open, deletes some data from Workbook1 to get
the totals he needs and pastes or manually types the result into workbook2 ,
goes back to workbook1 and hits Undo to restore the full source data, the
undo is applied to the data he has just typed in Workbook2. The next undo
restores the data in workbook1 but then he has lost his total.

Excel seems to be applying the undo to the last change made regardless of
which worksheet he is in at the time.

I loked on my machine and I have four excel spreadsheets open; on one of
these, looking in Excel Options, Advanced and at the "When Calculating this
workbook" option gives a drop-down list containing two of the workbooks. If
I go into a different workbook (not one of the two listed) the same drop-down
box there only shows one workbook. I guess this related to our user's
problem but I don't know how.

Is there a way of controlling which workbooks are grouped in this way? I
haven't done anything to group them that I'm aware of.

With thanks in anticipation,


John H.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Only by working on a single workbook at a time.

Undo is an application process--not a workbook process.

 

[Luke M]

It really depends on how you open XL/your files. When you open a XL via the
program menu, it opens an instance of XL, and all following XL "files" that
you open go into that instance (furhter clarity, opening an XL file will
cause it to be opened in the last-active instance; or if XL is not open,
create one).

However, if you go back into the programs menu and open the XL program,
you'll create another instance of XL, rather than just another workbook in
the already opened instance.

Having multiple isntances is handy for when you want one workbook to be in
manual calc mode, and the other in automatic. Do note that there are
tradeoffs, however, such as how XL is able to handle the copying of data, and
inter-workbook referncing.

 

[John H]

Got it.

Thanks, Luke. I've tried it out and you're quite right - going back to the
Start menu each time keeps everything separate. That's a great help - I'll
explain that to our user.

I appreciate the quick reply.

All the best,

John.

 

[John H]

Thanks, Dave.

You're right, we needed to work with effectively one workbook per instance,
but I couldn't see how. Luke M expalined that one for me. Thanks for the
prompt reply.

Regards,

John.