This wikiHow teaches you how to update Microsoft Excel on a Mac computer. Click here to download the latest. I have Microsoft Office 2008, and I only use excel.
By Geetesh Bajaj, Jim Gordon. Get the most out of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac with handy tips for working in Office in general as well as word-processing in Word, making spreadsheets in Excel, creating PowerPoint slides, and e-mailing with Entourage.
Microsoft Excel
Note
Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.
Start quickly with the most recent versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and OneDrive —combining the familiarity of Office and the unique Mac features you love. Work online or offline, on your own or with others in real time—whatever works for what you’re doing. The trial download has Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008, Messenger 2008 and Entourage 2008. Entourage is the email, calendar, contacts program for Mac users, in other words it’s the Outlook equivalent for Macintosh. Messenger is for use with Microsoft Instant Messaging services. Keep your existing Office. Office 2008 combines Microsoft Word for Mac, Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac, Microsoft Excel for Mac, Microsoft Entourage for Mac, and Microsoft Messenger for Mac and lets you easily create high-impact documents and seamlessly share your ideas with others, whether they are on the Mac or Windows platform.
Summary
This article describes how to prevent files from automatically opening when you start Microsoft Excel.
More information
When you start Excel, all the files that are located in the XLStart folder are automatically opened. This behavior occurs regardless of the kind of file. Additionally, if you specified an alternative startup folder for Excel, every file in that folder is also automatically opened.To remove an alternative startup folder:
Select the File menu and then select Options.
Select the Advanced tab and then locate the General section.
Clear the box next to 'At startup, open all files in:'.
Excel might stop responding or take longer to start if either of the following conditions is true:
Microsoft Office 2008 For Mac
The files in either startup folder aren't valid Excel workbooks or worksheets.
The files are stored on a network drive that has a slow network connection.
How to prevent files from automatically opening in Excel
Use one of the following methods to prevent files from automatically opening when you start Excel.
Remove files from the XLStart folder and the alternative startup folders
To remove files from the XLStart folder and the alternative startup folders, follow these steps:
Select Start, and then select Run.
In the Open box, type one of the following and press Enter:
Delete any files in the XLStart folder or move them to another folder.
Restart Excel.
Start Excel in safe mode
Note
Free Excel For Mac
This is only a temporary solution that will not fix the issue. To use this method, it must be done every time that you start Excel.
Another method for preventing files from automatically opening is to start Excel in safe mode. Starting Excel in safe mode prevents all Excel add-ins, toolbar customizations, and startup folders from loading when the program is started.
There are two ways to start Excel in safe mode: the CTRL key and command-line switches.
Using the CTRL key
To start Excel in safe mode, hold down the CTRL key while you start Excel. You will receive the following message: Excel has detected that you are holding down the CTRL key. Do you want to start Excel in Safe mode? Select Yes to start in safe mode.
You can then delete files from the alternative startup location as described earlier.
Use Command-line switches
In all versions of Excel, you can use a command-line switch to start Excel in safe mode.Both the /safe switch and the /automation switch can be used for this purpose.
Note
The /safe switch starts Excel in safe mode. The /automation switch disables all automatically opened files and auto-run macros.
To use a command-line switch to start Excel, follow these steps:
Select Start, and then select Run.
In the Open box, type either of the following lines (but not both):
excel.exe /safe
excel.exe /automation
Select OK.
Note
If Microsoft Windows Installer starts when you use one of these command-lines switches, clickCancel to finish starting Excel.
Press the ESCAPE key
Note
This is only a temporary solution that will not fix the issue. To use this method, it must be done every time that you start Excel.
Another method for preventing files from automatically opening is to press the ESCAPE key (but do not press and hold). When you press ESCAPE after the files start to open, Excel is prevented from opening additional files.
Using this method, you may receive one or both of the following messages:
Would you like to cancel opening all files from your Alternate Startup File Location?
Would you like to cancel opening all files from your XLStart Location?
If you click Yes in either message, Excel starts without opening any additional files from the startup locations.
Note
Do not hold the ESCAPE key. If you do this, the messages will be closed before you can click Yes.
References
For more information about Excel startup folders, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:
System Information User Guide
Refer to the manual for your Mac when you need information that’s specific to your model, such as supported connections and expansion information.
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac.
Click Support.
In the macOS Resources section, click User Manual.
You can also:
Download MacBook Air Essentials, MacBook Pro Essentials, MacBook Essentials, iMac Essentials, iMac Pro, and Mac mini Essentials from Apple Books.
Get manuals and related documents for MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacBook, iMac, iMac Pro, and Mac mini from the Apple Support manuals website.