How to Open Up Two Excel Documents Side by side

28
Feb 2011

How to Open Up Two Excel Documents Side by side

Tags: Excel, Microsoft Office, General
comment icon46 comment(s) |

Have you ever had to look at two excel documents at the same time? By default it will open the excel documents in different tabs in the same window. It can get pretty annoying if you really need to see both at the same time.

Luckily, there is a little trick you can do so you can see both at the same time. Go ahead and open one document like normal. To open the next document, go to start and click run. In the run box type "excel" and then press enter. This will open up a completely different excel window. In that window you can open whatever document you need. You can also drag any excel file onto that window to open it.

Now you can view both documents at one, and maybe even use windows 7 new snap feature to see them even easier.

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Comments

March 1, 2011

gbivens

Nice tip Trey! I never though

Nice tip Trey! I never thought to try to open up a new instance of Excel then open/create a workbook. It's super annoying with dual monitors trying to get two spreadsheets on different monitors but with this tip you can. Thanks!

December 4, 2011

Anonymous

So easy by comparison with

So easy by comparison with other ways advocated.

Thanks!

September 26, 2012

Anonymous

Hero.

Hero.

March 2, 2011

dparsons

Shortcut

I'm a keyboard shortcut guy, so I just:

  • Hit WIN+R
  • Type EXCEL
  • Hit ENTER

Done! Good tip Trey.

March 3, 2011

Matthew Chandler

Even easier

Snap it to your Win7 task bar & hold shift while clicking shortcut to open a new instance of that application.

If you're like me and you have excel on your task bar, this is much easier than opening a command prompt.

April 22, 2011

Anonymous

Thanks

You're my new hero, that makes it so much easier.

September 27, 2011

mvs

excel side by side

this worked perfectly
thanks

November 4, 2011

Stanislav Zholnin

Alternative way

To be objective, there is some downside to the method described, so be conscious about it:

  • copying and pasting between different instances of Excel is handled in a different way than within the same instance. So you might get unexpected results.
  • if two books open are cross-linked, they will not be updating on recalculations. In order for one instance to see updated made in the other instance you need to a) save the book b) press "Update outside links" in the other.

There is one alternative way, without downsides described, but a little bit less convenient:

  • Manually widen Excel windon on two screens (first need to get rid of "full screen" window mode, then manually drag it across the window.) As a result you'll get single document window across two screens.
  • Then, within excel adjust your documents to occupy its own screen by using "windows -> Tile" or manually.

Hope that helps.

Stanislav.

January 24, 2012

B

Fantastic !!!

Thank you so much... I gave up on doing this years ago, so glad my recent internet search brought me here. Cannot thank you enough !
B

April 15, 2012

TJ

Helpful

Went to the Microsoft website, no help there. But your tip was very helpful.
Win+R> and excel.

I have a suggestion for your webpage, keep the comment form in the page itself, NO need to keep a link to comment and please remove the Captcha. It discourages a reader from posting comments. Spam guards like Askimet are good enough to catch 99% of spam.

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