Excel templates

[incognito]

Can anybody give me a hint how I can force Excel to open a specific template
when I hit 'New Workbook' in the File drop down window. I have populated the
Excel Startup folder with my modified template and two other folders and
find these listed in the Project Galery but would like to open this template
all the time just by hitting the 'New Workbook' (saving one step).
Is it all possible in Mac:Office X?
Thanks for your hints.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Can anybody give me a hint how I can force Excel to open a specific template
when I hit 'New Workbook' in the File drop down window. I have populated the
Excel Startup folder with my modified template and two other folders and
find these listed in the Project Galery but would like to open this template
all the time just by hitting the 'New Workbook' (saving one step).
Is it all possible in Mac:Office X?
Thanks for your hints.

Piece of cake - name the template "Workbook" (no quotes, no extension)
as described in XL Help ("default workbook template" - it's the first
item that comes up in XL04 Help when you search for "template", I think
it's the same in v.X).

 

[Nadine]

Piece of cake - name the template "Workbook" (no quotes, no extension)
as described in XL Help ("default workbook template" - it's the first
item that comes up in XL04 Help when you search for "template", I think
it's the same in v.X).

I have the same problem:
If you do this in Office 2004, a new workbook with the properties of
this template will be opened upon starting Excel directly (through the
program icon). The new workbook that is generated when selecting "New
Workbook" from the menu (or using cloverleaf N) is not the template
workbook. Similarly, I have not succeded in defining a template for
"New Worksheet" by following the Help intructions.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I have the same problem:
If you do this in Office 2004, a new workbook with the properties of
this template will be opened upon starting Excel directly (through the
program icon). The new workbook that is generated when selecting "New
Workbook" from the menu (or using cloverleaf N) is not the template
workbook. Similarly, I have not succeded in defining a template for
"New Worksheet" by following the Help intructions.

Strange. Both File/New Workbook and CMD-N generate a file based on my
Workbook template.

Make sure your Workbook template is named "Workbook" (no quotes, no
extensions - i.e., not Workbook.xlt).

If that's not the problem, try trashing your preferences. With XL closed
(very important!), trash the

~:Libraryreferences:Microsoft:com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist

file (where ~ is your home directory). Empty the trash. Start XL - same
thing?

 

[Bernard Rey]

Nadine:

I have the same problem:
If you do this in Office 2004, a new workbook with the properties of
this template will be opened upon starting Excel directly (through the
program icon). The new workbook that is generated when selecting "New
Workbook" from the menu (or using cloverleaf N) is not the template
workbook. Similarly, I have not succeded in defining a template for
"New Worksheet" by following the Help intructions.

Might be a localization issue: if you're using a different language, you
have to adapt the name to the effective name your version is using. Where
one has to use "Workbook" and "Sheet" (without any extention) with an
English version of Excel, I have to use "Classeur" and "Feuil" in my French
version, and it may well be something like "Werkbuch" (?) and "Tabelle" (?)
in German, etc.

In the French Helpfile, the names that are suggested aren't working. So this
could be a clue (in case you're not using an English version).

 

[Nadine]

I did trash the Excel preferences - no change
I trashed all microsoft preferences I could find - no change
I am using the English versions of MS Office 2004 and OSX 10.4.2,
the Auto-Update functions have been used regularely on both the
operating system and MS Office to always install the most recent minor
updates.
Obviously the template files "Workbook" and "Sheet" are recognized as
some kind of templates, since they are used to generate a new Workbook
each when I start up Excel directly, not by double-clicking an existing
Workbook. However, they are not used then I select "new workbook" or
"insert worksheet" from the menu.Funnily enough, location seems to be
the only necessary criterium for opening at startup, independent of the
filename, since they are also opened if I give them entirely different
names.

Nadine

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I did trash the Excel preferences - no change
I trashed all microsoft preferences I could find - no change
I am using the English versions of MS Office 2004 and OSX 10.4.2,
the Auto-Update functions have been used regularely on both the
operating system and MS Office to always install the most recent minor
updates.
Obviously the template files "Workbook" and "Sheet" are recognized as
some kind of templates, since they are used to generate a new Workbook
each when I start up Excel directly, not by double-clicking an existing
Workbook. However, they are not used then I select "new workbook" or
"insert worksheet" from the menu.Funnily enough, location seems to be
the only necessary criterium for opening at startup, independent of the
filename, since they are also opened if I give them entirely different
names.

Every non-template file in the

Microsoft Office 2004:Office:Startup:Excel

folder will open when you start XL. The fact that Sheet opens indicates
that Sheet is probably not a template. If Workbook opens as Workbook,
and not Workbook1, that indicates that Workbook is not a template
either. Are you sure that Workbook and Sheet are saved as templates?

If that's not the problem, I'd think that Bernard's suggestion of a
localization issue is most likely correct.

 

[Nadine]

Thanks -Saving as Template did the trick!

I must have tried saving "Workbook" and "Sheet" as template sometime in
the past, but gave it up when "Workbook.xlt" with the default extension
did not work, and Workbook saved as "Workbook" at least gave me a
Workbook with the desired settings when starting up Excel.

After saving "Sheet" and "Workbook" as templates but without extension,
Excel now opens "Project Gallery-New" when started from the program
icon, "New Workbook" or "cloverleaf N" opens a Workbook that
corresponds to the template, and the Worksheet inserted upon selecting
"insert worksheet" does show the formatting specified in the "Sheet"
template. Problem solved.

 

[incognito]

First I want to thank everybody who has jumped at my problem originally
posted on 8/18. I made substantial progress using the suggestions/hints.
Thank you all!
I am an longtime user of Excel, but only using it since 2003 on my Powerbook
G4. This gives me a slight disadvantage understanding the appropriate jargon
re: MAC OS X and most importantly finding the diverse 'locations' where one
may place templates. This is to me not a straight forward thing yet. Anyway,
I did the following:
1) I saved the templates 'sheet' and 'workbook' that I wanted to become my
default worksheet and startup workbook on the desktop and closed Excel
2) I deleted all sheet and workbook templates with .xlt extensions and
cleaned out the trash basket.
3) I deleted the .plist in
~\users\myname\Library\Preferences\com.microsoft.excel.prefs.plist
4) I cleaned out the trash bin again
5) Last I moved the 'sheet' and 'workbook' templates without extensions into
the \Applications\MS Office X\Office\Startup\Excel folder

And lo and behold: Excel opens with the desired template. Great! However,
if I try to insert another blank sheet formatted to be compatible with the
sheets in the workbook, Excel inserts a sheet from its own, apparently well
guarded supply.
How can I tackle this last problem?
Rudolf

JE McGimpsey wrote on 8/22/05 8:20 AM