Opening Workbooks Automatically

Many people work on the same workbooks each day. If this describes you, you will be happy to know that you can have Excel open specific workbook files automatically whenever you start Excel.

The XLStart folder is located within your Excel document folder. For example, the path may be

C:\Documents and Settings\ <> \Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLStart

Another XLStart folder may be located here:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\XLStart

Any workbook files (excluding template files) stored in either of these XLStart folders open automatically when Excel starts. If one or more files open automatically from an XLStart folder, Excel won’t start up with a blank workbook.

You can specify an alternate startup folder in addition to the XLStart folder. Choose Office => Excel Options and select the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the General section and enter a new folder name in the field labeled At Startup, Open All Files In. After you do that, when you start Excel, it automatically opens all workbook files in both the XLStart folders and the alternate folder that you specified.