Xlstart folder not working fully as expected in Excel 2007

[IanKR]

I've just upgraded to Office 2007 on my laptop, and have set up new
templates Book.xltx (visible), Sheet.xltx (visible) and Personal.xlsm
(hidden) in my xlstart folder, similar to the setup I had under Excel 2003.

So far so good.

When I start up Excel 2007, however, it starts up Personal.xlsm as a hidden
file (as expected, so I do have access to my macro library), but it does not
open with a visible blank workbook based on Book.xltx, as I would expect.
I've checked that I've got the correct path to the xlstart folder in Options
(which I must have, otherwise it wouldn't open Personal.xlsm). It looks like
it's ignoring the Book.xltx completely. What's going wrong? Is there a
setting somewhere to make Excel start with a blank workbook somewhere, which
I may have switched off inadvertently?

I'm running Office 2007 and Vista, both with the latest SPs etc.

 

[IanKR]

Update:

If I remove Personal.xlsm from the xlstart folder everything works fine -
that is, Excel starts up with a blank workbook based on Book.xltx. But then
I don't have Personal.xlsm opened in a hidden state, so that I don't
automatically have access to my macro library. It seems that having
Personal.xlsm there messes things up with Book.xlxt. Presumably not the way
it's supposed to work? It all worked fine in Excel 2003.

 

[IanKR]

Update #2.

Sorted. The Personal macro library file has to be in Binary format, i.e.
Personal.xlsb. Then it all works as under Excel 2003.