Short-Lived Book1

Fred ran into a problem with Excel—when he first starts the program, Excel opens Book1 as it should. Then, after a second or two, it switches to Book2 where Fred can start working. He's curious as to why Excel switches to Book2, and what happened to Book1.

Startup problems in Excel can be rather tricky to track down, but there are a few things you should check. First, make sure that there is nothing in the XLStartup folder on your system; it is possible that Book2.xls is stored there, and Excel is opening it whenever you start the program.

Of course, it is also possible that errant add-ins are making the switch, or that a template is responsible for it. You'll need to do some detective work in this case. A good place to start is this Web page, maintained by Excel MVP Jan Karel Pieterse:

http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/StartupProblems.asp