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Excel

Workspace: Create a Personal View of Your Workbooks

Excel enables you to have multiple workbooks showing simultaneously, and to have a customized view of your workbooks arranged in different windows. Then you can save your view workspaces as .xlw files and use them when it suits you.

To open more than one workbook at a time, select File → Open…, press the Ctrl key while selecting the workbooks you want to open, and then click Open.

Arrange Workbooks in Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

  1. From any of the workbooks, select Arrange from the Window menu.
  2. Select an Arrange option you prefer from the Arrange Window dialog box.
  3. Uncheck “Windows of active workbook” checkbox if checked.
  4. Click OK.

Arrange Workbooks in Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021:

  1. From any of the workbooks:
    on the View tab, in the Window group, click Arrange All.
  2. Select an Arrange option you prefer from the Arrange Window dialog box.
  3. Click OK.

If you select Tiled, you will be presented with your workbooks in a tiled fashion, as shown with blank workbooks in the figure:

Four workbooks in a tiled view

Selecting Horizontal gives you a view of your workbooks in a single stack, one on top of the other, as in Figure:

Four workbooks in a horizontal view

Checking the Vertical option will place all your open workbooks side by side, as shown in Figure:

Four workbooks in a vertical view

Finally, selecting the Cascade option will layer all your open workbooks one on top of the other, as shown in Figure:

Four workbooks in a cascade view

Once your workbooks are displayed in your preferred view, you can easily copy, paste, drag and drop, etc., between them.

Saving Workspace

Note: The Save Workspace command is not available in Excel 2013 and later.

If you think you might want to return to a view you created, you can save this preferred view as a workspace.

To save a workspace in Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003:

  1. Select File → Save Workspace
  2. Enter the workspace’s filename in the File Name box
  3. Click OK.

To save a workspace in Excel 2007, 2010:

  1. On the View tab, in the Window group, click Save Workspace.
Saving workspace in Excel 2007 (or 2010)

When saving your workspace, the file extension will be .xlw rather than the standard .xls.

To restore your Excel workspace to one full window of a particular workbook, just double-click the blue titlebar appearing on any one of your workbooks. You can also click the Maximize button on any of the windows in your workspace. Close your workbooks as usual when you’re finished.

Whenever you need to open those same workbooks, simply open the *.xlw file, and the view you initially set up will be magically restored for all workbooks.

If you need to open just one of these workbooks, open the file as usual. Any changes you make to the workbooks in the *.xlw file will be saved automatically as you close the workspace as a whole, or you can save workbooks individually.

If you spend a small amount of time setting up some custom views for repetitive tasks that require multiple open workbooks, you’ll find that these tasks become easier to manage. You might decide to use different views for different repetitive tasks, depending on what the task is or how you’re feeling that day.

Understanding Workbooks and Worksheets: