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Microsoft Excel Help: Have Excel Always Open Certain Workbook(s)

Problem: You always use Excel to work on a particular workbook. Every time that you open Excel, you want this workbook to open automatically.

By Mr Excel
Desk Tech
Reading time 2 min read
Word count 228
Windows platform Computing Microsoft excel
Microsoft Excel Help: Have Excel Always Open Certain Workbook(s)
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Quick Take

Problem: You always use Excel to work on a particular workbook. Every time that you open Excel, you want this workbook to open automatically.

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Strategy: Place the file (or a shortcut to the file) in the XLStart folder. This folder can generally be found in the C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\ folder. Anything in this folder will automatically start when Excel starts.

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Alternate Strategy: You can specify one folder to act as an additional XLStart folder. Follow these steps.

  1. Move the Excel workbook or workbooks to a new folder. Excel will try to open every file in this folder, so make sure that you do not have other files in it.

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  2. Open Excel. From the Tools menu, select Options.

  3. In the Options dialog box, find the General tab. There are five fields at the bottom of the General tab.In Excel 2002 and later versions, the penultimate field is called At Startup, Open all Files in:. In Excel 2000 and earlier versions, this same field was called Alternate Startup File Location. In either case, enter the path to the folder in this field.

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Alternate Strategy: A third strategy is to use a command line switch. This is discussed in the next topic.

Summary: Excel will automatically open all files in the XLStart folder or in one additional alternate startup folder that you specify.

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Commands Discussed: Tools – Options – General

Cross Reference: Set up Excel Icons to Open a Specific File on Startup

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