Need two Excel windows side by side, on different monitors, in the same instance

Question

I have to do work between two spreadsheets and I need to view them side by side. I can't just open the workbooks in separate instances because I need to make use of features like paste formatting, and all of that goes away when the workbooks aren't in the same instance.

Is there anything I can do to get two windows open, each with a separate workbook, each maximized on a different monitor, and still have access to the advanced cut/paste features?

Answer 1

I'm assuming you're extending your desktop onto both monitors?

Once you've done that, make sure Excel is NOT maximized and manually resize the Excel program window using the corner resizing anchors to cover both screens.

Then you can open both spreadsheets and go to View>>View Side by Side.

On Mac: >> Window >> Arrange All >> arrange vertically.

Answer 2

I have the same problem but I found this and it works great!

When you open multiple Microsoft Word documents, you are able to put one on your main monitor and one on your secondary monitor to compare, copy and paste from one document to another. However, if you open multiple spreadsheets from Excel, you can't do the same thing! This has annoyed me since 2007 when Microsoft introduced the functionality in Word but not in Excel.

Well, I found a way around it. Here is how.

1. Open your first Excel spreadsheet. Place it on the monitor you wish to work with it.
2. DO NOT open the second spreadsheet with the Excel program that is open. Instead, go to your Start Menu and open Excel from there. Then do a File >> Open and open your second spreadsheet.
3. Place the second spreadsheet on the monitor you wish to view the spreadsheet.

As far as I can tell, since you're opening a second instance of Excel, you can place it wherever you wish.

Answer 3

There's a New Window feature in tab View, but it still opens in the same parent window, because Excel is an MDI application. So you'll still need to resize the parent window to cover both screens

---

Update

This seems to be fixed in Excel 2013, which changed to SDI only

• Opening workbooks by running separate instances of excel
• Other View Options

Answer 4

A coworker of mine accomplished this by using a piece of software called UltraMon. Instead of dragging the Excel application window across both desktops (which I agree, is annoying), you can right click the application in your taskbar and click "Maximize to Desktop."

Answer 5

Click on the Office button (upper left corner) → Excel options → Advanced → General → check "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" box → OK. Excel spreadsheets will now open as a new file each time.

Please note: checking "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" box will sometimes cause your spreadsheets save with data on them to open as blank or grey spreadsheets. You will have to uncheck "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" box to eliminate this problem. It's kind of a catch 22.

Answer 6

In Excel 2010,

To display the two files side by side instead of on top of each other, you have to load the two files as two separate instances. To do this, you must open a new instance of Excel, then open/create a workbook.

Summarized steps as below.

1. Open the first Excel file you need to access and put that on Monitor.
2. Open a second instance of Excel on Monitor #2 by going to the Start Menu > Programs > Microsoft Office > Excel.
3. Move this second instance of Excel to Monitor #2.
4. Open or create a workbook from the second instance of Excel that’s now on Monitor #2.