How to prevent Excel from opening a blank workbook on startup

Does anyone know how to prevent excel from opening a new blank workbook on startup? My installation (Excel 2003) used to do that, but for some unknown reason it now opens a new spreadsheet called Book1.

It also used to retain certain settings, which it now fails to do. I think the two issues are related. For example, I want the Tools -> Options -> Calculation -> Iteration checkbox to remain checked. But ever since it started opening a new blank workbook on startup, it also overrides this setting. It is getting annoying to have to reset it every time I start up excel.

(The reason I have it set is because I have some intentionally circular calculations.)

Good evening Dacroz

What you need to do is put the switch /e after the command line that opens Excel. This will stop a new workbook opening (and also suppress the XL startup splash screen).

As for your second question, this particular setting is saved with the spreadsheet, not as a general Excel setting. If you want every Excel session to open with this setting turned on use a piece of code such as this saved as an add-in using the workbook_open event procedure to kick start it.

With Application
.Iteration = True
.MaxChange = 0.001
End With

HTH

DominicB

Thank you!

Your welcome.
Thanks for the feedback.

I tried the /e switch, but it has no effect. Looking through the MS help pages at http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;291288 I see that MS Office 2003 (which I have) has different rules. Apparently it is installed by the Microsoft installer, which prevents access to the Shortcut Target box, so I tried their suggested workarounds, all still with no effect.

Something is overriding anything I try to do.

The other thing that puzzles me is that this is a sudden change in behavior, with no explanation. Before last week, the "iterations" box remained checked without me having to do it manually, and the Book1 worksheet never opened. What has changed? Why? How can I put it back the way it was?

Good evening Dacroz

Sorry you didn't find my answer helpful. I too am using XL 2003, and you are correct in saying that 2003 is a little different becasue of the install routine. My version has always opened a new workbook from it being first installed - certainly not through options I selected when installing it. I have managed to set up a new XL icon on my desktop, using right click, New Shortcut, and putting this in the Target box (the space before the /e is very important) - obviously your path may be slightly different depending on your OS and setup.

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e

This works OK for me. I can't explain why your XL suddenly stopped working as it did and can only suggest you try a reinstall, but even then it is not guaranteed to work as before.

Hope you find the above useful and I'm sorry I can't provide any more help than that.

DominicB

Thanks again for the feedback, DominicB.

I tracked down the new Book1 workbook opening to an add-in. When I disabled it, the /e switch works.