Excel opening blank

[bananacitizen]

Today when ever I tried download or open existing excel file double clicking it opens blank. But if I go to FILE, OPEN and go to to location and CLICK OPEN file
thatopens fine in excel. I never had this problem before very strange. Has anybody got any idea why this happening please? See attached blank how it looks

[José Augusto]

Hi

The zoom is 10% ?

[ByteMarks]

I had this issue after installing Office 2016 and fixed it by running a Quick Repair.

[bananacitizen]

It wont let me change the zoom?

[bananacitizen]

How did you ran the quick repair?

[bananacitizen]

Reason Zoom 10% there is nothing downloading to zoom?

[ByteMarks]

Find MS Office in programs/features, right-click, choose change. Should be a repair option there.

[Zer0Cool]

There are a couple things that can make this happen.

If I understand it right, does this happen when double clicking a file or when opening the Excel program itself (or both)?

If its when opening a file, go to the View tab | Switch Windows. If its lists the name of the file its open and just not in the view-able area. You can use View | Arrange All and any option and it should come into view.

If the above doesnt work and a file was listed, go to the Review tab. If Protect Workbook is active then the structure and placement of the window is locked and was done so in such a way that its out of your view. You will need to unlock the workbook structure, then use the above to see it.

Another way of checking if a file is actually open and just not visible is the File | Info page. If at the top it gives file name/path then the file is open and you just cant see it.

Depending on where the file came from, it may be blocked. To check go to where the file is stored in Windows, right click and go to properties. If there is an unblock button click it then try opening the file. Windows will sometimes block internet/network sourced files for safety, this lets Windows know you decided its safe.

If it happens with opening just Excel, you may have multiple files in a startup folder like 2 personal workbooks. When you have multiple hidden workbooks in the startup folders it can cause Excel to open as you showed without a new blank file. To resolve it check your XLSTART folders (go to File | Options | Trust Center | Trust Center Settings | Trusted location to find all the startup folders and their paths.

You can also try opening Excel in safe mode to see if the issue happens. From the run dialog or search bar on the start menu type 'excel.exe /safe' (without the surrounding quotes). If it works, Excel opens and in the title bar at the top says (safe mode). If it works in safe mode close and open normally. If its working great, if not then its likely a startup file or an addin causing issues. If you did the step before, then addins are the only thing to check. Disable all of them, restart Excel. If the issue is gone enable them 1 by 1 (closing and re-opening Excel between) until it comes up again and that will tell you which addin(s) caused the problem. If you dont need the addin leave it disabled, if you do need it then it likely needs to be updated (or an Excel update needs to be rolled back) for it to work properly.

As others have mentioned, you can try a repair but thats usually a last ditch effort. If you have any templates, personal workbooks, etc you may consider backing them up before doing this for good measure.

Other less likely things to try...

Ensure that Excel has all its file associations in Windows.
You may try enabling/disabling graphics acceleration in Excel (in Options)
Ensure "Ignore applications that use DDE" is unchecked (in Options)