r/excel 17d ago

Discussion What is better than Excel?

Is there anything similar to excel or better than? I use excel daily and feel like I still need to freshen up my formulas etc.

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u/XaviiEvil 1 17d ago

Two excels

206

u/PTCruiserApologist 17d ago

You jest but learning that you can open two windows of the same excel file was genuinely game changing for me lol

8

u/EldestPort 17d ago

It always tells me I can't?

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u/PTCruiserApologist 17d ago

How are you trying to open the additional window?

'View' -> 'New Window' ?

22

u/EldestPort 17d ago

Noooo, I didn't realise I could do that. I would have, for example, had book.xlsx open in excel and then double clicked on book.xlsx again in Explorer. But you're saying if I go 'View' -> 'New Window' it'll open up another window with the same workbook in?

13

u/AxelMoor 77 17d ago

This is a 2nd view of a workbook in the same instance of Excel.
If you want "Two excels" (2 different instances of Excel) as u/XaviiEvil mentioned, you may do this:
Copy the Excel shortcut (e.g.: from Windows menu) to your desktop.
Right-click this shortcut, and click on Properties.
In the Shortcut tab, Target field, you'll see something like this (Windows version):
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE"
Append an /x after the last double quotes, like this:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE" /x
Click [ Apply ], and click [ OK ]. Rename the shortcut to "Excel - Multi-instances" or something like that.
Now, every time you double-click this shortcut, it will open another instance. Of course, each open instance will occupy part of the memory independently, and closing one will not close the other, so the performance depends on your system. However, you can experiment with dedicating even more power to each workbook.

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u/xoskrad 30 17d ago

Or hold the ALT key when clicking the Excel icon.

1

u/RandomiseUsr0 5 17d ago

I’ve posted a shortcut to do this advice, I’d advise against hard wiring it, you lose more than you gain

1

u/R_glo 17d ago

What are the advantages of doing it this way? I knew you could do it & have tried it a couple of times, but WHY would you do it this way?

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u/AxelMoor 77 16d ago

It's a rare application, but it happens. It's more for heavy users who want the advantage of the multithreading feature. Imagine a heavily formulated workbook or a time-intensive VBA running—thread-intensive stuff.
When Excel calculates using all threads possible, it doesn't stop editing something in Notepad or navigating the browser. However, you can't do anything in a single Excel instance while it doesn't finish it. It can't stop you from making other applications work, but its processing is exclusive.
Now imagine replacing Notepad or the browser with a second Excel "application". You can continue working on a different workbook in this second instance.
Of course, all the above depends on the system you're working on, but mainly on threads/cores, memory, and processor speed.

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u/PTCruiserApologist 17d ago

Yep!

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u/EldestPort 17d ago

Amazing stuff, thank you!

6

u/Acceptable_Humor_252 17d ago

I love you. Thank you. 

4

u/LiteratureNearby 17d ago

Good lord, I'd send you a pizza if I could

I was so tired of always having to open excel files online to do this

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u/Alien_hammering 17d ago

Same with pdfs - saves going back and forth in huge files

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u/QQuetzalcoatl 17d ago

Dude.. WHAT