Prevent new instance of Excel

[mhenk]

Okay, so I did some rearranging of my menus, some cleanup of my macros, and some tweaking of some options in XL, and now I've got a weird situation. I can't open files unless i go to file... open... within excel.

Okay, that's not entirely true. If there are no instances of excel open, I can open a file from the start menu or windows explorer. But, if there is an instance of excel open, and I try to open a file from the start menu or windows explorer, it opens a new instance of excel, tells me that PERSONAL.XLS is locked for editing, and no matter what I select, my file doesn't get opened!

How can I prevent explorer from attempting to open another instance of XL when there's already one open?

 

[Datsmart]

In Windows Explorer...
Tools | Folder Options...
File Types Tab,
Scroll down and click "XLS". (or whatever file extension you are working with)
Click "Advanced"
Under Actions, click "Open".
Click "Edit"
Be sure "Use DDE" is checked.
If needed, Under DDE Message, input the following text:
[open("%1")]
OK out of the dialogs and you should be able to open a workbook into an existing sesson by double clicking the file name.