If you work with Excel and want to use two monitors to view or edit different spreadsheets, you might have encountered some difficulties. Excel is not very friendly when it comes to opening multiple windows on different screens. We will show you some tips and tricks to make it easier for you to work with Excel across two screens.
Option 1: Open two instances of Excel
One way to open separate spreadsheets on two different monitors is to open two instances of Excel, and open one document in each process. Then you can drag them along to whatever display you please. Here are the steps to do this:
- Open your first spreadsheet by double-clicking the file or using the File > Open menu in Excel.
- To open a second instance of Excel, hold down the Shift key and then click on the Excel icon on your taskbar or desktop. You should see a new Excel window pop up.
- In the new instance of Excel, open your second spreadsheet using the File > Open menu. You will see both spreadsheets in separate windows.
- Drag one window to your second monitor and adjust the size and position as you like. You can now view or edit both spreadsheets on different screens.
Option 2: Use the New Window and View Side by Side commands
Another way to open separate spreadsheets on two different monitors is to use the New Window and View Side by Side commands in Excel. Here are the steps to do this:
- Open your first spreadsheet as normal.
- To open a new window with the same spreadsheet, go to the View tab and click on New Window. You will see two windows with the same spreadsheet, one with a :1 and one with a :2 after the file name.
- To open your second spreadsheet in one of the windows, go to the File > Open menu and choose your file. You will see both spreadsheets in separate windows.
- To arrange the windows side by side, go to the View tab and click on View Side by Side. You will see a dialog box asking you to choose which window you want to compare with the active window. Choose the other window of your workbook and click OK.
- Drag one window to your second monitor and adjust the size and position as you like. You can now view or edit both spreadsheets on different screens.
Option 3: Maximize Excel across multiple screens
If you want to maximize Excel across multiple screens, you need to use some VBA code to do the job for you. This method only works if your left-most monitor is your primary display, which means it has the Windows/Start button, the Search box and the clock on it. If your primary display is on the right, this code will not work properly. Here are the steps to do this:
- Open your spreadsheet as normal.
- Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor.
- In the Project Explorer window, right-click on ThisWorkbook and choose Insert > Module.
- In the code window, paste the following code:
Private Declare Function GetSystemMetrics Lib "user32" (ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Const SM_CMONITORS = 80
Const SM_CXVIRTUALSCREEN = 78
Const SM_CYVIRTUALSCREEN = 79
Sub MaximizeAcrossScreens()
Dim Number_of_Screens As Long
Dim Total_Screens_Width As Long
Dim Total_Screens_Height As Long
Number_of_Screens = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CMONITORS)
Total_Screens_Width = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXVIRTUALSCREEN)
Total_Screens_Height = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYVIRTUALSCREEN)
Application.WindowState = xlNormal
Application.Top = 0
Application.Left = 0
Application.Width = Total_Screens_Width
Application.Height = Total_Screens_Height
End Sub
- Press F5 to run the code. You will see Excel maximized across all of your monitors.
- To restore Excel to its normal size, press Ctrl + F10.
