Docking Excel spreadsheets redux

Question

I received two emails, each of which has an Excel spreadsheet attached. I open one of the spreadsheets by double-clicking its name in the attachment field. I open the second by double clicking it. I'd like to dock one to the right, the other to the left, but I can see only one at a time, and attempting to dock first one and then the other doesn't work.

I open one spreadsheet from an email, and another one that has been copied into OneNote. Same problem.

I open two spreadsheets stored on the desktop by double clicking them. Same problem.

I open two instances of Excel via the satrt menu, navigate using Excel File>Open to the two spreadsheets on the desktop and open them in the two instances of Excel. I can now dock one to the right and one to the left.

It appears that when I open a second spreadsheet by double clicking on it, it opens in the same instance of Excel and then I cannot see both spreadsheets at the same time. If I'm opening an attachment to an email or an Excel file in OneNote, I can't navigate to them because I don't know where they are.

Even if I did know where they are, I wouldn't want to navigate to them anyway, because I need to do this a lot. I'd like not to have to save or copy the Excel files to the desktop or somewhere so I could navigate to them for the same reason.

I guess my question is, how can I get two instances of Excel by double-clicking on an Excel file or shortcut to an Excel file?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

This may not be possible.

You may open multiple instances of excel only if you open the files from within the application.

Check the link below which discusses regarding the same:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-excel/i-want-to-open-2-excel-files-in-separate-windows/f7588d9a-3c41-466f-8f01-3b6ab9661ae3