Isolate my excel instance

[ilya2004]

I have a workbook where the users interact only with a userform for both inputs and outputs, so I would like to have application.visible = false set for this workbook.

My concern is that if people need to reference other things in excel while they are using this workbook, it will be hidden from them also.

My thought would be to force excel to open my document as a separate instance, and then to block any other documents from opening in this instance.

Does anyone have any ideas how to accomplish this?

Alternatively if you have a better idea how I can deal with this problem, I would be open to suggestions.

 

[mikerickson]

Instead of Application.Visible, why not set the .Hidden property of the workbook(s) in question?

 

[ilya2004]

The reason is, that I don't want this tool to be visually connected to excel at all. The way that it looks like now, it feels like a stand-alone program. If I only set the .Hidden of the workbook, the whole Excel would still be open and in the user's face.

 

[ilya2004]

If nobody knows how to do it my way, I would be open to another option if you have any ideas.

 

[ilya2004]

I found this: It might be a good start, but I would appreciate some help with it:

http://access.mvps.org/access/api/api0013.htm

 

[ilya2004]

Should I just give up?

 

[NdNoviceHlp]

This might help... http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=456284&highlight=file
Look into using Vb6 to make a .exe file that contains the XL file and then creates an XL instance and opens/runs the wb. It won't interfere with another XL instance and the file is not accessable in another XL instance when VB6 is running it. HTH. Dave

 

[Greg Truby]

Mike & Novice are steering you right. You can follow Mike's advice and create dictator applications in Excel where you take complete control of the interface (see Professional Excel Development 2nd (or 1st) Edition for a lot more information on how to create a dictator (or other) types of Excel applications. The user is still in Excel - but you can make it so that they don't really know they're in Excel. Bill Manville is an Excel MVP that has a lot of experience in this area.

OR do as Novice indicates and just step out to a toolkit that allows you to create a true stand-alone application that simply accesses an instance of Excel via its object model.

Note that neither of these is for the feint-of-heart. Not trying to discourage you -- but just understand what you are undertaking.

 

[ilya2004]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your advice. I am going to check out Novice's link, but where did you see that Mike sent me info on dictator applications? The only message I see from him is the one on workbook.hidden?

 

[Greg Truby]

...but where did you see that Mike sent me info on dictator applications? The only message I see from him is the one on workbook.hidden?

Mike said to stay inside of Excel and simply hide the workbook -- which would be my first inclination / recommendation as well.

Then, in a subsequent post, you indicated that you want to make this look like and interact with the users like it is an independent application, not Excel.

Stay inside Excel + App doesn't look like Excel = Dictator Application