‘Personal’ workbook (XP)

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More than a few of us on our LAN would like to get rid of that nuisance that Kaiser Bill calls “Personal.xls.” I don’t remember seeing this little pest in earlier versions of Excel. Surely it has a purpose (and I’d love to know what it is!), but I’ll be sheep-dipped if I can see the value! I tried to find something about it in Excel Help, but I’ve had no success. Suggestions?

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I don’t know why you find Personal.xls such a nuisance, and it certainly isn’t new in Excel 2002 (XP). Excel has been using it to store macros that should always be available at least since Excel 95.

See Legare Coleman’s overview in post 272311

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OK, Hans

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Lucas,

The PERSONAL.XLS should be hidden. Try Hiding it by selecting Windows / Hide from the menu.

Chuck

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A-ha! Yes! That’s it!

Thanks, Chuck! As is so often the case, the answer was so darned simple!

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Just to add my 2-bits worth,

If you prefer not to show more than one instance of Excel in the taskbar,
click on Tools | Options | View and put ‘Windows in Taskbar’ off.

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That’s very interesting! I didn’t know that. It appears you can do the same thing with Word. I usually like having all my open Word documents holding a spot on the taskbar. That way, I can use Alt + Tab to toggle between documents. But I can certainly see when I might want to take advantage of this selection.

Thanks for sharing that information!

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Actually the ‘Show windows in Taskbar’ is a common setting throughout Office
i.e., if you set it in Excel it will apply in Word & PowerPoint (Office 2000)

It doesn’t seem to apply to PowerPoint on my PC, though !
I had to enable it separately from Tools | Options | View

About switching between open Word files using Alt+Tab,
you can also use Ctrl+F6 to get the same result.
This combination works throughout Office.

Point is, using Ctrl+F6 helps to keep your taskbar clutter-free.

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Hello, Khushnood: Yes, I like the clutter-free taskbar, too. On the other hand, Alt+Tab is a one-hand operation–takes two to work Ctrl + F6. I’ve used both approaches, and each has its advantages. Thanks for the tip!

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In Excel, control-TAB also switches workbooks.

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Hi Lucas,

Yes, Ctrl+F6 does take two hands – unless you have BIG hands and like to work uncomfortably !!!

Also, Jan Karel Pieterse has suggested using Ctrl+Tab in Excel — which is what I use all the time.
I don’t use Word / PowerPoint too often, so Ctrl+F6 is not so much of a pain when I use these packages

Another suggestion – if you find yourself wanting to switch ‘Windows in Taskbar’ on & off, frequently,
maybe you could record a small macro to do that in Excel, and assign it a shortcut !

This line should do the trick in Excel
Application.ShowWindowsInTaskbar = Not Application.ShowWindowsInTaskbar

I tried – VERY BRIEFLY to look for a similar command in Word – and couldn’t find it !
Don’t know if its there in Word at all, in the first place !

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Hi Khushnood,

Application.ShowWindowsInTaskbar is available in VBA for Word 2002 and PowerPoint 2002 too.

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Hi Hans,

You’re right of course — as usual…

My apologies, I didn’t specify that I use Office 2000.
I guess Microsoft took care of this in Office XP — or am I mistaken ?

On an aside… I really marvel at your replies to almost all posts for help on the Excel board…
It’s a real learning experience just browsing through the Daily Archive from the Lounge…

Please keep up the good work !

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Hello Khushnood,

Up to and including the 97 version, Word displayed just one icon in the Task Bar. In Office 2000, Microsoft decided to make Word display each document separately in the Task Bar, and in general make Word act as if each document runs in a separate instance of the application (it’s all smoke and mirrors, though, in reality just one instance of Word is active). This irritated a lot of users, so in Word 2002, they gave users the same option as in Excel, to show a single icon for the Word application, or to show separate icons for each document.

Thanks for your kind words. The Lounge is a great learning experience for everyone involved; I learn something new every day from the great replies by other Loungers.

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Now that you gave us the history, I do remember reading this bit about MDI (Multiple Doc Interface) being removed in Word 2000, in a WOW issue.

This was another example of Microsoft saying something ( ‘integrated’ suite ) and doing another ( Word behaving differently from Excel ! )

Yes, I fully agree with you about learning something new from the lounge – if not everyday, then very frequently…
And I’m sure a whole bunch of happy users will vouch for you being their saviour more times than they can remember…

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Personal.xls stores macros that you use all the time. It is very handy – though you can delete it if you wish!

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(Edited by Don_Sadler on 12-Jul-03 20:58. Operator error – I now have it.)

Okay – I agree with all about the personal.xls – however, I can’t find mine. I am using excel xp (2002) and I have searched all over my hard drive for hidden files, system files, etc and no personal.xls. I do have add-ins, global macros, etc so I must have a personal.xls. Is there another name for this file? Never mind – I guess I didn’t have any global macros.. I have now and I do have the personal.xls.

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There is no other name for Personal.xls. Addins do not use Personal.xls, and Addins can create global macros.

When you install Excel, you do not automatically get a Personal.xls created. Have you followed the procedure in This Post to create a Personal.xls?

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[indent]

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There is no other name for Personal.xls

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[/indent]Not in English versions, anyhow. Dutch is something like persnlk.xls.

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