opening different office file types together

preacher666 · 04 Apr 2010

I have to open various types of office files at once to mark students work. such as publisher, word, powerpoint, excel and access.

In XP i would just highlight all the files in the folder and press enter and they would all open. under windows 7 i can only open one type of office file at a time.

This is a pain when i have 3 publisher, 2 powerpoint, a spreadsheet and 4 word docs to open in the same folder.

I have searched under folder options but does anybody know of a setting to change to allow it?

I cant believe Microsoft could offer less functionality over xp in this aspect!

when i have about 8 docs per folder, 6 folders per unit, 2 units per student, approx 26 students per class and 6 different classes to mark (on this course) it really adds up!

Bill2 · 04 Apr 2010

preacher666,
I'll try to answer your question. Hopefully i've understood the question right.

1) Firstly, in Office 2007 (which i'm using), I can open a single word document, a single excel document and a single powerpoint document side by side (am currently not using Access). So that is not the issue.

2) I think what you want to do is to open multiple word docs, multiple excel files etc. simultaneously.

Open Word 2007, click on "View" tab at the top, then click on "Arrange All". You'll now find that you can open multiple documents, they will all show up in the task bar.

Also, if in Word 2007, you click on Office Button, Word Options, Advanced, then scroll down to the "Display" group and uncheck the "Show all windows in the Taskbar" box, then click on OK, you 'll find that only one window shows in the taskbar but the different open files are all arranged side by side in that window.

Try repeating this process in Excel, Powerpoint etc.

preacher666 · 04 Apr 2010

Thanks for the reply,

I can open multiple documents of the same type, thats fine.

I have a problem with a folder containing different types of office documents.

For example a folder containing a word doc and an excel doc. I have to open one, go back to the folder and open the other.

It may seem trivial but its really time consuming when there is 4 types of office doc and you have to open each one individually.

Something you didnt need to do in XP..

Celeste · 21 May 2010

Hi,

I'm sorry to report that I don't have a solution. I've been looking for a solution since Vista! I had hoped that it might have been fixed in W7.

I would like to clarify that this problem is not only related to Office. Windows Explorer will not let you open files with different extensions. For example, you cannot select file1.csv & file2.xls (or pic1.bmp & pic2.jpg) and press enter expecting it to open both files. It doesn't even have the courtesy to give you an error message or a warning.

I've also observed that I can't open "too many" of the same file extension. I've haven't figured out the criteria for "too many". Sometimes 8 files are OK, sometimes they are too many. Also no warning or error.

Celeste