How to open two excel files side by side or in two different windows?

If you want to open two excel files side by side (or) in two different windows to make it easy for file comparison or to find the differences between them, then follow below steps.

I saw few people struggling when they want to do something (compare/copy-paste/finding differences) between two excel files. They open two excel files, do comparison, but they see only one excel file on the monitor at a time. It takes so much time, if you do comparison/content- copy-paste in that way. Here, im providing a simple (most of the people don’t know) solution to open two excel files side by side, like you open two PDF files on different monitors/windows.

Steps to open two excel files side by side or

in different windows/monitors

  1. Open your first excel file (like you normally open). It opens excel app window.
  2. To open second excel file in separate window , Click Start button
  3. Goto All Programs -> Microsoft office
  4. Click on “Microsoft Excel 2007
  5. One more instance (one more window) of excel application will open.
  6. Click on office MS-Excel-windows-button button and open your second file.

Now, you have two excel files in two separate windows. You can drag/ shuffle them on two monitors or place two excel files side by side. That’s it.

open-two-excel-files-side-by-sideNote: The above procedure is tested on Windows 7. You can do it on other OS versions also.Instead of opening the file directly, first open excel application and then open excel file to view it in separate window.

About the Author

SRINI S

A passionate blogger. Love to share solutions and best practices on wordpress hosting, issues and fixes, excel VBA macros and other apps