Dual monitors

[GerryK]

Hi,
Does anybody know if Excel 2003 can support the use of dual monitors?
I'm guessing that it involves separate simultaneous starts of two files and
that that may be the limiting factor.

Anybody have any experience in this reagrd?

TIA

 

[Chip Pearson]

I have a three monitor setup (3 NEC flat panel displays
controlled by a Matrox Parahelia video card) and Excel works
fine. You can either maximize Excel on one monitor, or stretch
Excel out across all monitors (to column BG in my case). You can
also stretch the Excel application across all monitors and
display a separate worksheet in each monitor.

You don't have to have two (or more) instances of Excel running
to take advantage of multi-monitor setups. Excel handles multiple
monitors just fine.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com

 

[Aquila47]

It depend on what you are trying to do. Dual monitors are more a function of
the operating system then Excel. I can either have excel running and stretch
the application window over both monitors or I can open two instances of
Excel and place them on separate monitors.

I hope that answers your question.

 

[GerryK]

Thanks, I was hoping it was possible but before I invested in another monitor
and video card, I guess my question nows begs how to open two separte files?
I have always seen only one with the second reduced to the bottom toolbar. Is
there some reconfiguring to do?

TIA

 

[Chip Pearson]

No, no special operation is required to open two or more files.
Open works exactly the same with two monitors as it does with
one.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com

 

[Solomon20]

Mr. Pearson,

I came across the email thread while trying to figure out exactly what you
described. However, I am not able to separate the two Excel files onto two
monitors if I have only one copy of Excel running. It is easily done with
two copies of Excel open, so there is a work around, but I am curious how you
separated two files using one Excel running. I can only jump between them
using the "Window" function. Thanks in advance.
Henry McElreath

 

[Chip Pearson]

I don't maximize Excel (my video card settings maximize in
individual monitors). Instead, I restore the main Excel window
and drag it to cover to two monitors, then use the Window Arrange
Vertical command two arrange one window in each monitor.

Ctrl+TAB will switch focus between the two windows.
--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com


message

 

[BobW]

One thing to watch out for, with 2 monitors: if you have two spreadsheets
open (one on monitor A, one on monitor B) and you close spreadsheet A, then
quit Excel, and then send spreadsheet B to a colleague with one monitor, when
he/she opens it, there will be nothing but an empty grey window. The
spreadsheet from monitor B is still there, but out of sight. And since Excel
doesn't detect how many monitors are in use when someone opens a spreadsheet,
it doesn't "know" that it needs to provide a horizontal scroll bar so the
one-monitor user can scroll it into view. I don't know if there's some other
Excel command that will force hidden spreadsheets to pop back to upper left
corner in such a case....maybe so, maybe not. Hope this helps...

 

[AndyLV]

Chip, I have dual monitors too. I'm on Office 2007. At least once a day
Excel goes crazy. I'll have Excel up on one screen with either other office
applications on the other screen or another instance of Excel. All of a
sudden, my ribbion will go black. The spreadsheet itself will split with the
top half on one monitor and the bottom half on the other. Or, perhaps both
monitors will just go gray. As I drag my mouse over where the ribbon should
be, buttons and icons will reappear allowing me to save the file.

This has happened at the beginning of the day, in the middle and at the end
of the day. It happens when I have no file up and when I have a number of
files up. It happens when I'm only running Excel and when I have a number of
systems working.

After getting out of Excel, bringing it back up and bringing up the file,
everything is fine. The file is not corrupted. Everyone in the office who
has multiscreens and works on Excel suffers this problem. Those who have one
monitor don't. This makes me believe it's a video card problem. Can you
suggest either a fix, patch or better video card I can instruct my IT teckies
to buy?

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

Chip, I have dual monitors too. I'm on Office 2007. At least once a day
Excel goes crazy. I'll have Excel up on one screen with either other office
applications on the other screen or another instance of Excel. All of a
sudden, my ribbion will go black. The spreadsheet itself will split with the
top half on one monitor and the bottom half on the other. Or, perhaps both
monitors will just go gray. As I drag my mouse over where the ribbon should
be, buttons and icons will reappear allowing me to save the file.

This has happened at the beginning of the day, in the middle and at the end
of the day. It happens when I have no file up and when I have a number of
files up. It happens when I'm only running Excel and when I have a number of
systems working.

After getting out of Excel, bringing it back up and bringing up the file,
everything is fine. The file is not corrupted. Everyone in the office who
has multiscreens and works on Excel suffers this problem. Those who have one
monitor don't. This makes me believe it's a video card problem. Can you
suggest either a fix, patch or better video card I can instruct my IT teckies
to buy?

I find this very interesting.

I have dual monitors, and I have a very similar problem of intermittent and
unpredictable screen corruption.

I have another computer at another house, with only a single monitor and,
although I've not noted the screen corruption there, I haven't had Excel 2007
running there long enough to be certain.

If you develop any solutions that don't involve giving up a monitor, I would be
most appreciative if you could post it here.

There have been some postings on the 'net having to do with screen corruption
and Excel -- none of them helped me, but none had to do specifically with a
dual monitor setup.
--ron

 

[AndyLV]

you might try getting in touch with your computer manufacturer web site. I
have Dell and when i explained the problem, they down loaded some additional
drivers and updated the BIOS. It has not been long enough to really test
what they've done, but at least they tried something.