Does anyone know how to open 2 different/separate excel files and have 1 open on, say, the Left monitor and 1 open on, say, the Right monitor? I for the life of me cannot figure out how to do this.

I know you can open excel, maximize it, and then within Excel have 2 'Excel windows' opened, but that's not what I want. I want 1 Excel application window opened, and then I want to open a second Excel application window so I can easily navigate between the two.

I've Google'd this and all the results that come back are either 2 files in 1 Excel session or completely & utterly confusing. Surely someone can put this into easy words/steps for me.

Open one version of Excel. Then right click on the excel icon (toolbar or desktop) and click on "Microsoft Excel 20xx". The drag one copy to the second desktop window.

What gut said.youll just have to open whatever excel file you want from the file drop down menu.

So glad they got rid of that for 2013.

Only issue is if you're trying to vlookup or reference the other file. The formula won't transfer to that second session of Excel you opened. As Pick mentioned this is no longer an issue in Office 2013. Although I dislike just about everything else with the new version. It always freezes up when I undock my laptop.

No problems with this on a Mac.

gut;1627683 wrote:Open one version of Excel. Then right click on the excel icon (toolbar or desktop) and click on "Microsoft Excel 20xx". The drag one copy to the second desktop window.

Ok. So that helps me open an Excel file (already created) and a 2nd Excel file (a new/fresh file). Now how do I open an Excel file (already created/pre-existing file) and a 2nd Excel file (that is already created/pre-existing). When I try to do what you said clicking one of the "Recent" files as opposed to "Microsoft Excel 2010", it opens the "Recent" file but I'm back to only having 1 Excel file/window open at a time.

Gut has it right. In the second instance of Excel, you can only open files in the File -> Open section. Otherwise anything will be opened up in the 1st instance of Excel.

Scarlet_Buckeye;1627775 wrote:Ok. So that helps me open an Excel file (already created) and a 2nd Excel file (a new/fresh file). Now how do I open an Excel file (already created/pre-existing file) and a 2nd Excel file (that is already created/pre-existing). When I try to do what you said clicking one of the "Recent" files as opposed to "Microsoft Excel 2010", it opens the "Recent" file but I'm back to only having 1 Excel file/window open at a time.

Pick6;1627702 wrote:What gut said.youll just have to open whatever excel file you want from the file drop down menu.

So glad they got rid of that for 2013.

^^

Pick6;1627792 wrote:^^

Oh my god... you just changed my life forever.

Thank you SO much Gut and Pick6!

I now know you are a boomer. Only boomers don't know how to use Excel.