Opening multiple office files

I've just come across a problem where I set up buttons to open excel and word files I frequently use. I did this by dropping the files onto a toolbar with the customise window open.
If I open an Excel or Work file it opens no problem but if I then click on another Excel file without closing the original, Excel will come to the front but the new file doesn't open. The same happens with Word files.

Does the same thing happen when you double-click the same files instead of using the buttons?

If so does it still happen if you use Explorer instead of Opus?

Which version of Office are you talking about?

FWIW I just tried it with Word 2002 and I don't see any problems.

Hi leo. Double clicking files opens them as normal, it's just when you try to open files from buttons, that this occurs. I've tried it on Office 2000, 2003 & 2007. Thanks.

Am I doing something different?

Here's what I am doing, and what happens, with Office 2007, .xlsx files and Vista this time:

nudel.dopus.com/posts/multidocs.wmv

(I've done the same with Office 2002, .doc files and XP.)

Both using Opus 9.1.1.1

Hi Leo,
You look to be doing exactly the same as me. The only difference is the end result. When I do it only the first file is opened.
www.safesetters.co.uk/dopus/officeproblems.avi

I had a similar problem a bit ago. It showed up after an Office update and has occasionally shown up again. The solution for me, which has needed to be redone a couple of times after Office updates:


in 'File Types" for .xls files:

The OPEN command needs to be:

 "D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office2003\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"

Substitute your own path.

Do this for both Explorer and Dopus just in case.

Clear the DDE message field to keep from trying to open two copies of the file.

Restart DOpus just in case.


Thanks mnoble, I'll try that on Monday when I get to work. The strange thing is I've just tried the multiple file buttons on my home computer which has pretty much the same set up as my work one and it behaved perfectly, just like Leos. Same versions of Opus (different licences) and same version of Office. Strange...

I managed to reproduce the problem when I tried again. It's a weird one.

I've seen some bugs in the way Office handles requests to open files before (e.g. if several arrive in parallel then it will sometimes open some extra blank windows) so I wouldn't be surprised if this was due to a bug in Office but it's hard to tell, especially when it seems to happen so randomly.

I tried to write a small test program which would launch the files in a similar way to what Opus must be doing from the toolbars but I couldn't make it reproduce the problem. I guess that doesn't mean much when I can only repro the problem in Opus sometimes.

mnoble's suggestion seems good. Eliminating DDE from the equation has solved problems for me in the past with other programs.

I've just tried changing the Open command to "D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office2003\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1" and deleting the DDE entry. I now get seperate instances of Excel running but the selected files don't open. Thanks for your help in this guys.

Has anyone had any more ideas on the cause of this problem or a work around? I've tried various Windows / Office configs. On some the problem doesn't occur, others open the file but behind the previously opened file and others show the problem as detailed in the earlier post.

I've got one vague idea but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Will let you know if I find anything useful.

Something that might work is using an MS-DOS Batch type of Opus button and setting the command to this:

runmode hide Start "<path>"

That makes the Windows "Start" command launch the document instead of Opus.

If you don't mind a little ugly vbscript, you could use a script like this:

Dim oArgs, oExcel,oWorkbook
set oArgs=Wscript.Arguments
if oArgs.count = 0 then
msgbox("no file name provided")
Wscript.Quit
end if
set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
set oWorkbook = oExcel.Workbooks.open(oArgs(0))
oWorkbook.Application.Visible=1

Save it in a .vbs file and call it from a button, passing in the name of the file. Requires WSH. This version is for Excel, If you want to make it work for different office programs, just evaluate the extension and make the adjustment. This worked in Office 2000, under W2K. Also note the lack of error checking, if you pass in a bad file name it will not be graceful. :slight_smile:

Lou