why is Excel opening personal.xls?

  • Thread starter Thread starter milo 02/20/04 12:57 pm
  • Start date Start date
M

milo 02/20/04 12:57 pm

in the last few days, I've noticed when I click on an
Excel spreadsheet in either MS-Exploring or off a shortcut
icon, it open my spreadsheet AND another one called
personal.xls.

What is this blank sheet and how can I get Excel to stop
opening it? Thanks!
 
Milo,

You probably once recorded a macro and choosed the option to save it in your
personal.xls file.
You can check that by pressing <ALT> F8 (while personal.xls is NOT the
active file) and looking in the listing of available macro's.
There are probably some macro's with that name : Personal.xls!Macroname

If you are sure you can miss those macro's : the file can be deleted and is
normally saved in your startup directory (every excel file in your startup
directory is loaded when excel starts up).

If you can't discard those macro's, tyou can hide the personal.xls file.
Remenber to save it after you close Excel (you will be prompted then, cause
Personal.xls has changed by hiding it). The next time you start Excel it
won't be visible again, but the macro's in it are available).

--
Regards,
Auk Ales

* Please reply to this newsgroup only *
* I will not react on unsolicited e-mails *
 
Excel stores macros to that file. It sounds as if a
macro was created and stored in that file. This allows
the macro to be available to all spreadsheets you have
open.
 
i had tried unsuccessfully to create a macro that would
remove all of the hyperlinks in a spreadsheet.

Never got it to work. Just tried deleting that macro,
hoping it would fix this situation. It didn't. How can I
get it to stop opening personal.xls?

It's very odd. I can create and run macros in Word
without this happening. But Excel makes there be a
special sheet open just to use macros?
 
Just locate the file Personal.xls then (probably in a directory (startup or
xlstart) under the Excel path) and delete the file.
If you can't find it direct, you can always locate it with the search
function of the Explorer.

Word by the way does more or less the same. It has a file Normal.dot in
which all the macros you record are stored.
Excel is a bit more flexible (in my opinion) since it let you choose where
you want the macro to be stored .

(Maybe I'm wrong about word, i'm not very familiar with it).

--
Regards,
Auk Ales

* Please reply to this newsgroup only *
* I will not react on unsolicited e-mails *
 
Hi!

By default, Excel opens your Personal.xls file which is generally used
as a repository for User Defined functions and subroutines that you
want to be able to access whenever you use Excel. It's a very valuable
file for most users.

If you have nothing in it, you can delete it by using Start > Search
etc.

My advice would be to stay with it and start experiencing the joys of
vba.

It should, however be a hidden workbook. If it isn't then hide it and
accept the suggestion to save changes when you close Excel.

--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia
(e-mail address removed)
Excel and Word Function Lists (Classifications, Syntax and Arguments)
available free to good homes.
 
This is Milo. Three people wrote back to my last question
and all of the responses showed as "Message unavailable".
Please try again.
 
I'd never tried to hide a sheet before, so I tried it.
While the blank looking "Personal.xls" was on the screen,
i tried "Format/Sheet/Hide". It came up telling me
that "A workbook must contain at least one visible
worksheet". I don't want to even see that Personal is
open.

Am I hiding it wrong?
 
I'd never tried to hide a sheet before, so I tried it.
While the blank looking "Personal.xls" was on the screen,
i tried "Format/Sheet/Hide". It came up telling me
that "A workbook must contain at least one visible
worksheet". I don't want to even see that Personal is
open.

Am I hiding it wrong?
 
Milo

Do not hide the sheet.

With Personal.xls in view on screen...........

Click on Window>Hide

When you close Excel you will be asked if you want to save changes to
Personal.xls. Click "YES"

Gord Dibben Excel MVP
 
Milo

Stick to one thread. Your post of 2 minutes ago was just answered.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP
 
Success at last! Thank goodness!
-----Original Message-----
Milo

Do not hide the sheet.

With Personal.xls in view on screen...........

Click on Window>Hide

When you close Excel you will be asked if you want to save changes to
Personal.xls. Click "YES"

Gord Dibben Excel MVP



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