jbjones@marlin.NOSC.MIL (John B. Jones) (09/30/89)
I hope there are some Excel users out there. I've been using Lotus for a long time, but I'm switching to Excel. I have some questions for any gurus there might be: Is there a way to configure the directory to be something other than the "windows" directory? This was easy in Lotus, but I'm having trouble seeing how in Excel. Is there a way to configure excel so that the particular choices you like in the menus (Page Setup, for instance, or Display) come up as defaults instead of having to be redone each time you open the program? Is there a way to get to DOS from in Excel, like you can do in Lotus? Please help me if you know any of these answers. It will be appreciated. John jbjones@marlin.nosc.mil.UUCP
tom@stiatl.UUCP (Tom Wiencko) (10/01/89)
In article <1229@marlin.NOSC.MIL> jbjones@marlin.nosc.mil.UUCP (John B. Jones) writes: >Is there a way to configure the directory to be something other than the >"windows" directory? This was easy in Lotus, but I'm having trouble >seeing how in Excel. Depends. If you are running the runtime Windows, probably not (but I'm not sure. If you are running a retail version of Windows, sure: just install (or copy) it in whatever directory you like. Mine is in a directory called \excel. >Is there a way to configure excel so that the particular choices you >like in the menus (Page Setup, for instance, or Display) come up as >defaults instead of having to be redone each time you open the program? Not that I have ever figured out. You could write macros to set things up, but I have not gotten around to doing that. > >Is there a way to get to DOS from in Excel, like you can do in Lotus? Not that I have figured out, with the runtime windows anyway. I use it with Windows/386 which lets me run a DOS window as a virtual machine, which solves my problem. But if you are using the runtime-windows which comes with Excel, you are probably out of luck. Tom -- Tom Wiencko (w) (404) 977-4515 gatech!stiatl!tom Wiencko & Associates, Inc.
hadgraft@civeng.monash.edu.au (Roger Hadgraft) (10/02/89)
In article <1229@marlin.NOSC.MIL>, jbjones@marlin.NOSC.MIL (John B. Jones) writes: > I hope there are some Excel users out there. I've been using Lotus for > a long time, but I'm switching to Excel. I have some questions for any > gurus there might be: > > Is there a way to configure the directory to be something other than the > "windows" directory? This was easy in Lotus, but I'm having trouble > seeing how in Excel. Either start Excel from the directory where you want to work (my approach), or change directory within the dialog box when you open a file. > > Is there a way to configure excel so that the particular choices you > like in the menus (Page Setup, for instance, or Display) come up as > defaults instead of having to be redone each time you open the program? I'm not sure about that. > > Is there a way to get to DOS from in Excel, like you can do in Lotus? With Windows, running DOS is a rare event. Because it is multi-tasking, you can switch out of Excel and run something else in parallel. In fact you can have several programs active at any one time. > -- Roger Hadgraft | hadgraft@civeng.monash.edu.au Lecturer in Civil Engineering | phone: +61 3 565 4983 Monash University | fax: +61 3 565 3409 Clayton, Vic. 3168. Australia. |
meyer@s.cs.uiuc.edu (10/03/89)
To get to DOS from EXCEL, just "flip" back to the MS-DOS Executive, and run a
DOS session from there.
If you haven't created a PIF file for command.com, you may want to - as running command.com to start a DOS session without a PIF file will run DOS within a
graphics window, and is quite useless for most tasks. Create a pif file with
the "modifies screen" flag set, and 128K required, 512 desired. (The required/
desired #'s should get you as much memory allocated to the DOS session as is
possible. Then, to switch between the DOS Session and EXCEL, simply hold
down <Alt> and press <Tab> until the desired session comes to the foreground.
Don Meyer | "If there is, indeed, Artificial Intelligence,
meyer@s.cs.uiuc.edu | Then it follows that there must
| exist Artificial Stupidity" - Anonymousclydep@hplsla.HP.COM (Clyde Phillips) (10/10/89)
>/ hplsla:comp.sys.ibm.pc / jbjones@marlin.NOSC.MIL (John B. Jones) / 11:01 am Sep 29, 1989 / >Is there a way to configure the directory to be something other than the >"windows" directory? This was easy in Lotus, but I'm having trouble >seeing how in Excel. > >John >jbjones@marlin.nosc.mil.UUCP >---------- My boss wanted to do that too, so I wrote a batch file that looks like this: @echo off c: cd c:\windows\files c:\windows\win excel %1 %2 %3 cd c:\ Then instead of typing "excel" just type the name of the batch file. This will make c:\windows\files your "default" directory for excel and will allow you to load up to three spreadsheets with the command. Of course if you wanted more, you would simply and more parameters to the run command. Not exactly the same as 123, but if you just want to start in the same directory all the time, it will work. Clyde Phillips