preferences

[Harvey Waxman]

Hope someone can help me with this. Excel refuses to hold on to preferences.
The most recent and disturbing issue is with the autocalculation feature. I
want to disable it but when I do and quit Excel it reverts to automatic the
next time I open Excel.

Using Excel OfficeX with Panther. Can anyone help me here? Other prefereneces
(feedback with sound) also refuse to stcik reliably.

Would it be better to just reinstall the entire suite from the CD or a waste of
my time.

 

[J.E. McGimpsey]

Hope someone can help me with this. Excel refuses to hold on to preferences.

The most recent and disturbing issue is with the autocalculation feature. I
want to disable it but when I do and quit Excel it reverts to automatic the
next time I open Excel.

Using Excel OfficeX with Panther. Can anyone help me here? Other
prefereneces
(feedback with sound) also refuse to stcik reliably.

Would it be better to just reinstall the entire suite from the CD or a waste
of
my time.

Autocalculation mode is set by the first workbook that is opened in
each XL session. If you start XL using the application icon, that
will likely be the default workbook, with an autocalculate mode of
automatic, unless you have a workbook in the Startup:Excel folder
that loads first.

If you start XL by opening a particular workbook (e.g.,
double-clicking on the workbook's icon), XL will set autocalculate
to the mode of that workbook.

To set XL to Manual calc by default (i.e, ulness you start it with
an autocalculating workbook), create a new workbook, set
calculation to Manual, and save it as a template with the name
"Workbook" (no quotes, no extension) in the Microsoft Office
X:Office:Startup:Excel folder.

 

[Harvey Waxman]

Autocalculation mode is set by the first workbook that is opened in
each XL session. If you start XL using the application icon, that
will likely be the default workbook, with an autocalculate mode of
automatic, unless you have a workbook in the Startup:Excel folder
that loads first.

If you start XL by opening a particular workbook (e.g.,
double-clicking on the workbook's icon), XL will set autocalculate
to the mode of that workbook.

To set XL to Manual calc by default (i.e, ulness you start it with
an autocalculating workbook), create a new workbook, set
calculation to Manual, and save it as a template with the name
"Workbook" (no quotes, no extension) in the Microsoft Office
X:Office:Startup:Excel folder.

Very helpful, thanks. I was on the phone with a MS tech as I got this and he
was told in his training not to put anything in that folder. So I taught him
something

Actually, the dialogue for the prefs should make it clear that settings are de
facto file specific. That way people wouldn't try in vain to change a
preference system wide (unless they know the secret of the forbidden startup
folder).

Thanks again.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Harvey,

I see that J.E. McGimpsey did a superb job of filling you in about
calculate.

The stuff you said about clearly differentiating between workbook and
application preferences I heartily agree with. Please take a moment to let
Microsoft know your feelings about this. No one from Microsoft necessarily
reads the newsgroups, but they do read the feedback.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/feedback/suggestion.asp

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

About Microsoft MVPs:
http://www.mvps.org/

Search for help with the free Google search Excel add-in:
<http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm>

----------

 

[J.E. McGimpsey]

Very helpful, thanks. I was on the phone with a MS tech as I got this and he
was told in his training not to put anything in that folder. So I taught him
something

Good for you! I'd be lost without my startup folder files:

-a catchall template that I use to disable the built-in toolbars and
create my own, install add-ins, reset all my preferences, kill
automatic hyperlinks, automatically resize windows and zooms,
reconfigure the keyboard, load custom lists, reconfigure the VBE,
etc.

-an add-in containing my VB6 replacement functions (written in VB5).

-an add-in that manages a Work menu much like Word's

-an add-in with my favorite 50 or so macros.

-an add-in that displays and prints hex dumps of cells

-a workbook and worksheet template

-an add-in to perform Google searches of newsgroups, websites and
the MSKB from XL.

Actually, the dialogue for the prefs should make it clear that
settings are de facto file specific. That way people wouldn't
try in vain to change a preference system wide (unless they know
the secret of the forbidden startup folder).

I agree with you - the problem stems from a carryover of Windows -
where more that one instance of XL can be running at one time. On
the Mac, a single application instance handles all the open
workbooks. Please provide MS some feedback on the issue using the
Help/Feedback on XL menu item.

 

[paul.cornet]

J.E.,

I am using excel 2004 and it seems that this workaround does not work.
I have saved a template called workbook with calculation set to manual
in the excel startup folder but 1)no workbook opens by default when i
launch excel (actually a good thing) 2) when i launch a new workbook, i
still get calculation preferences set to automatic. Am I doing
something wrong or is excel 2004 different?

p