ctrl-S bizzare behaviour

Question

Hi all,  I am having a strange problem in Excel:

Expected behaviour:

1. In Windows Explorer, I double click on a .xlt file.
2. Excel opens the file.
3. I edit the file.
4. I press Ctrl-S.
5. The file is saved.

Actual behaviour:

1. In Windows Explorer, I double click on a .xlt file
2. Excel opens the file
3. I edit the file
4. I press Ctrl-S
5. The Save As dialog opens, suggesting I save the file in My Documents
6. I browse to D:\Program Files\Altium Designer Winter 09\Templates
7. I realise that it's also suggesting I save it as a .xlsx file
8. I change the file type back to .xlt
9. Excel has now changed the directory to C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
10. I browse back to D:\Program Files\Altium Designer Winter 09\Templates
11. Click Save
12. Excel finally saves my document.

Why is the behaviour in Excel so strange and so different from every other program I have ever used?

How can I make it just save my document?

Many thanks

Hugo

Answer 1

When you double-click an Excel template file in Explorer, Excel creates a new -blank- workbook based off of the template file. It does NOT open the template file itself. I think Word works the same.

To edit a template file the way you like, first open Excel, then use file, Open to open the template file.

Answer 2

Double-clicking on an .xlt file does not open the .xlt file but creates a new blank workbook using that template.  Therefore when you press ctrl-s excel behaves in exactly the way you would expect.

Start excel and then open the template file using ctrl-o and browsing.

You could change your default template filepath to 'D:\Program Files\Altium Designer Winter 09\Templates' otherwise whenever you change the type to a template file excel will automatically switch to what it thinks is the correct folder for your templates.  Or change the type to .xlt before browsing for the folder you want to put it in.