Excel 2019

[mschmucker]

Does Excel 2019 open in SDI or MDI?

 

[RoryA]

SDI, the same as 2016.

 

[wrexcel]

But is there a switch to enable MDI once Excel 2019 has opened?

 

[RoryA]

No. It's SDI and you can't change that. Why do you ask?

 

[wrexcel]

Thank you for your reply, Rory.


The reason I ask is because I am still using Excel 2010 for its MDI capability. In some of the forums, one of them being a Microsoft site that polled for new features to be included in the upcoming Excel's, many users requested that MDI return in future releases. Given the overwhelming response, the expectation was that it might happen. It didn't happen for 2016 and, alas for those of us who found MDI to be very useful, it still hasn't returned.


Within MDI, you can open several workbooks within one Excel window. Each of these workbooks can be positioned exactly the way you want; it's easy to set up links between different workbooks; it is easy to switch between the open workbooks; screen real estate is more efficiently used without the extra ribbon overhead; you can quickly compare cell contents between different workbooks in the status line and I'm sure there are other benefits for many users.


Trying to replicate the MDI environment in the SDI Excel 2013 was totally exasperating. When you closed your carefully positioned workbooks in 2013, expecting them to be reopened in the same position, what you got was each workbook with its own Excel instantiation and they were stacked on top each the other. Having to reposition them the way that made your work efficient took a frustrating amount of time.


I haven't tried 2016 to see if it was more usable for an application requiring multiple open workbooks. If I might ask you, or anyone else on this site, if you have have experience with an application with multiple open workbooks, did your transition to SDI go smoothly? Did you find the SDI environment more useful and productive or not an issue? I would be interested in your comments that you are willing to share.


.

 

[wrexcel]

It seems that I'm not the only one wanting a return of MDI.

A simple Google search of the string

"Excel MDI SDI"

will return a ton of comments.

Very, very few have something positive to say about SDI.

 

[RoryA]

In some of the forums, one of them being a Microsoft site that polled for new features to be included in the upcoming Excel's, many users requested that MDI return in future releases. Given the overwhelming response, the expectation was that it might happen.

Excel's user base is estimated to be about 500 million seats worldwide, so I think overwhelming response is probably overstating things.

Within MDI, you can open several workbooks within one Excel window. Each of these workbooks can be positioned exactly the way you want; it's easy to set up links between different workbooks; it is easy to switch between the open workbooks; screen real estate is more efficiently used without the extra ribbon overhead; you can quickly compare cell contents between different workbooks in the status line and I'm sure there are other benefits for many users.

Other than screen real estate, I find the SDI interface more efficient for most of that, especially with multiple monitors, which I believe was the driver behind the switch: countless people complained about Excel not making good use of multiple monitors. Certainly more than I have seen complain about SDI as a concept (I don't count complaints about SDI bugs).

I personally find SDI a better way of working with multiple workbooks but I do completely agree that the ribbon is an inefficient use of screen real estate. If I could have SDI with the old toolbar system, I'd be much happier. If I could have 2016's functionality, SDI, and 2003's performance and stability, I'd be happy as the proverbial pig.

Then throw in an updated VBE and improved VBA (which won't happen sadly) and I'd be in dreamland...

I'd put good money on the fact that you won't see MDI come back. As I think Bill J noted recently, MS seems to have largely stopped paying attention to Uservoice suggestions, at least where Excel is concerned, after what was a promising start, so unless Enterprise starts to press them to go back, I just don't see it happening.

 

[SpillerBD]

It seems that I'm not the only one wanting a return of MDI.

A simple Google search of the string

"Excel MDI SDI"

will return a ton of comments.

Very, very few have something positive to say about SDI.

Just because you aren't hearing from those that hate MDI doesn't mean there aren't.
I HATE MDI am extremely glad MS got away from it.

 

[wrexcel]

Just because you aren't hearing from those that hate MDI doesn't mean there aren't.
I HATE MDI am extremely glad MS got away from it.

Please expand.

It's not as if Microsoft couldn't offer both MDI and its subset, SDI.

RoryA gave some of his reasons for preferring SDI.

Why are you so hateful of MDI? What special features does SDI have for you? What am I missing in SDI that you love?

 

[SpillerBD]

Switching between workbooks is Easier. ALT+Tab versus having to switch active window in the application.
Clearer definition of which workbook you are working in.

Rory's complaint about the Ribbon is meh. Minimizing the Ribbon and then using ALT +... to follow the ribbon commands. A ribbon is the same as the old menu generally except the first level is horizontal. Let alone it is sooo easy to add frequently used commands to the QAT or even to a NEW custom Ribbon. Yes MS did move some commands from one menu to another (like the moved Pivot Tables from DATA to INSERT.) Today, I just copied my Ribbon settings to anoither machine using the Export/Import function.

MDI, close Excel closes all workbooks not just the one Window, which may only be another View of the same workbook.

I will say the one better thing I feel MDI has over SDI is knowing you are working in multiple sessions of Excel. Two workbooks in different Excel Sessions can't interact with each other. At work, our ERP software will sometimes launch another session and I can't immediately move data from one workbook to another. Save/Close/ Reopen in the other session, get back to work.
I can also see MDI advantageous on SVGA or less monitors... They still make those?