Excel weirdness (2003 SP2)

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I have my options set to create three sheets in a new workbook. When I click on File|New, the ‘New workbook’ task pane opens and when I click on ‘Blank workbook’ a new workbook is opened with three worksheets. But when I click on the ‘New’ icon on the toolbar, the new workbook opens with only one sheet. The ‘New’ icon is the one without the ellipsis. If I put the icon with the ellipsis on the toolbar, it works just the same as File|New. I would like to open a new workbook with three worksheets and not have to do it via the menu or task pane. Is there a way to do this? If something is broken, any ideas for the fix?

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The standard New button on the toolbar should create a workbook with 3 sheets (or whatever you specified in Tools | Options) too. You might take a look at Jan Karel Pieterse’s Systematic Approach to Behavioral Problems in XL.

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Hi Andrew,
If you have a book.xlt template stored in the XLSTART directory, pressing the New icon will give you a new workbook based on that and you will get as many sheets as that template has.
HTH

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Hi Rory,

That was it! Thanks. There’s also a file called Sheet.xlt in the XLSTART directory. What’s the purpose of these files? I guess I created them at some point, but I can’t think why.

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Book.xlt is the default template for a blank new workbook (it more or less plays the role of Normal.dot in Word, although the analogy doesn’t hold up completely), and Sheet.xlt is the default template for a new worksheet in a workbook.

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Further to what Hans said, I have a book.xlt just so that I get my preferred styles and page setup – headers etc – in each new workbook.

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How does book.xlt interact with ‘Options’ settings? It appears that where the two conflict book.xlt rules. So what’s the point of the options?

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Most users don’t have a Book.xlt. For them, the settings in Tools | Options… apply.

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