Opening Two Excel Files Side-by-Side

Did you ever need to look at two Excel documents at the same time? By default Excel opens both documents in the same window. This makes it impossible to see both documents at the same time.

The secret to getting this to work is to open another instance of Excel before you open the second Excel document.  In order to do this you need to:

1. Open first Excel document by double-clicking on it
2. Open another instance of Excel:
   1. Use the mouse to
      1. Click Start -> Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Excel
   2. Use the keyboard shortcut of
      1. Hit WIN+R
      2. Type Excel
      3. Hit Enter
3. Then double-click on your second Excel document

You will now have two instances of Excel open and each will contain a different Excel document.  You can now resize each Excel window in order to have them side-by-side for comparison.

Thanks Cindy for showing me this trick!

 

Comments

[Dan Jacobson]

Great tip! This really comes in handy.

[sandramae]

Awesome!!

[Melissa]

Thanks for the tip! It really shouldn't even require this many steps. Honestly, we can open 30 different word docs at once without having to do work arounds. Get with it, Microsoft!

[Richard]

interesting that microsoft help does not describe this, or at least it is not at the top of the pile of queries. This should be easily selected as default!