Chapter 7: Understanding Excel Files
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Opening an Existing Workbook ........................................................................................
Following are some of the ways to open a workbook saved on your hard drive:l Choose File ➪ Recent and then select the file you want from the Recent Workbooks list.
Only the most recently used files are listed. You can specify the number of files to display
(maximum of 50) in the Advanced section of the Excel Options dialog box.l (^) Locate the Excel workbook file via a Windows Explorer file list. Just double-click the file-
name (or icon), and the workbook opens in Excel. If Excel is not running, Windows auto-
matically starts Excel and loads the workbook file.
l Use either of the following methods to display the Open dialog box:
l (^) Choose File ➪ Open.
l Press Ctrl+O.
From this dialog box, you can browse your computer for workbooks.
If you prefer to avoid the empty workbook displayed when Excel starts up, edit the command line used
to start Excel. You need to create a new shortcut to excel.exe and then modify the properties:
- Use Windows Explorer and locate the excel.exe program. The default location is
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\ - Pressing and holding the right mouse button, drag the excel.exe filename (or icon) to
your desktop and then release the mouse button. - From the shortcut menu that appears, choose Create Shortcuts Here. Windows creates a
new shortcut icon on your desktop. - Right-click the shortcut icon and choose Properties.
- In the Properties dialog box that appears, click the Shortcut tab.
- Edit the Target field by adding a space, followed by /e, to the end. For example:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE” /e - (Optional) Specify a shortcut key. If you provide a shortcut key, you can use that keystroke
combination to start or active Excel. - Click OK.
After making that change, Excel doesn’t display an empty workbook when you start it by clicking that
shortcut icon. In addition, you won’t see the normal “splash” screen.Starting Excel without an Empty Workbook