When you work with Excel for a while, you’ll find that you often
open a number of the same workbooks at the same time. For instance, Lori
Penor, the chief operating officer of Consolidated Messenger, might
always pull up a workbook that tracks labor costs at the same time she
opens the package volume summary workbook. She can open the workbooks
individually through the Open dialog box, but she can also group the
files so that she has the option of opening them all
simultaneously.
If you want to open a set of files simultaneously, you can define
them as part of a workspace, which uses one file name to reference
several workbooks. To define a workspace, you open the files you want to
include and then open the Save Workspace dialog box.
Clicking Save in the Save Workspace dialog box saves
references to all the Excel files that are currently open. Whenever you
open the workspace you create, all the files that were open when you
defined the workspace are displayed. Including a file in a workspace
doesn’t remove it from general circulation; you can still open it by
itself.
In this exercise, you’ll save a workspace that consists of two
workbooks, close the included files, and then test the workspace by
opening it from the Open dialog box.
Set Up
Open the OperatingExpenseDashboard and
FleetOperatingCosts workbooks. Then follow the steps.
-
In either workbook, on the View tab, in the Window group, click Save Workspace.
The Save Workspace dialog box opens.
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In the File name
field, type Expenses.
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Click Save.
Excel saves your workspace and closes the Save Workspace
dialog box.
-
Click the File tab, and
then click Close.
Excel closes the active workbook.
-
Click the File tab, and
then click Close.
Excel closes the second workbook.
-
Click the File tab and (if
necessary), click Recent. In the
Recent Workbooks list, click
Expenses.xlw.
Excel opens the OperatingExpenseDashboard and
FleetOperatingCosts workbooks.
Clean Up
Close the OperatingExpenseDashboard and FleetOperatingCosts
workbooks.
