Have Excel Always Open Certain Workbook(s)

August 18, 2021 - by Bill Jelen

Problem: I always use Excel to work on a particular workbook. Every time that I open Excel, I want this workbook to open automatically

Strategy: You can place the file you want to always open (or a shortcut to the file) in the XLStart folder, which is generally found in the %AppData%\Microsoft\Excel\ folder. Anything in this folder will automatically start when Excel starts.

Alternate Strategy: You can specify one folder to act as an additional XLStart folder. Follow these steps:

• 1. Move the Excel workbook or workbooks to a new folder. Excel will try to open every file in this folder, so make sure you do not have other files in it.

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  2. Open Excel. Select File, Options.

• 3. Click Advanced in the left pane of the Excel Options dialog.

• 4. Scroll down to the General section. Enter the path to the folder from step 1 in the At Startup, Open All Files In text box, as shown here.

Alternate Strategy: Another strategy is to use a command-line switch, as discussed in “Set Up Excel Icons to Open a Specific File on Startup.”

This article is an excerpt from Power Excel With MrExcel

Title photo by Ken Cheung on Unsplash