Office 2011: Multiple Files Opening on Word and Excel Startups

just in case you thought you were the only one, i too had this problem.

I managed to fix it by going to system preferences...general....and unticking "Restore windows when quitting and reopening apps"

HOWEVER

After a restart i found that outlook had deleted all my email accounts, which as i use a hosted exchange account wasnt such a problem, but if you are POP3 emailer then make sure you are backed up first.

The plus point was that i didnt get all my word docs and spreadsheets openinig every time.

I found the same 'feature', but found if I close individual workbooks/documents before exiting from excel/or word, they do not reopen.

I suggest you guys post your question on Microsoft's own forums fo their Mac software. Apple Communities only provide support for Apple products:

http://www.officeformac.com/productforums

I fixed this for Excel 2011 on a 10.7.3 machine by deleting this folder:

~/Library/Saved Application State/com.microsoft.Excel.savedState

Excel will automatically recreate defualt versions of the files when it is relaunched.

If you are having a similar problem with any other application, delete the respective folder in ~/Library/Saved Application State

The Library folder is hidden in 10.7.x, so you will need to browse to it manually in Finder by selecting Go-->Go to Folder. The tilda (~) symbol represents the current user's home directory in OS X.

Sir,

I tried the same , as per your instruction but found same problem,.

I am using Office 2011 (14.2.1) service pack 2 on Mac os X 10.7.3. Whenever I open Excel, all my workbooks open. How can I prevent all workbooks from opening automatically when Excel starts?

Edris Usaf wrote:

Sir,

I tried the same , as per your instruction but found same problem,.

I am using Office 2011 (14.2.1) service pack 2 on Mac os X 10.7.3. Whenever I open Excel, all my workbooks open. How can I prevent all workbooks from opening automatically when Excel starts?

I suggest you post your question on Microsoft's own forums for their Mac products, as it's their software you're having issues with:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac

Thank you soooo much for your helpl!

This definitely worked for me and I'm soooo relieved!

Thanks again! Now I can get back to my studies and prep for church...

You don't have to uncheck the "Restore windows when quitting and reopening apps" if you only want to prevent Word from opening several files. You can use th drop down menu for Documents in the General Preferences window and change it to "None". This prevents multiple Word files from opening.

Genius !

Thank you.

Thanks for the advice! I'm using microsoft word for Macs on my Macbook Air, and had the same problem. I'm running OSX10.8.5

The fix on this version is to go to the apple logo in the corner, choose system preferences, choose general and click on Close windows when quitting an application. Open word again and close it and next time it doesn't do it.

All fixed! Haven't checked emails but I don't use Outlook anyway.

Had a similar issue

SOLUTION

I had saved a template of my files

open the ~/Library/Applications Support/Microsoft/Excel Folder

Under the Excel Folder

Delete any previous files listed

Under the User Templates Folder

Delete any previous templates

This will solve your problem. 🙂

This SOLUTION also works for MS Word. Do the same thing under the Word folder.

Brilliant. Word was opening so many windows it was crashing the application. Deleting the saved state file fixed the problem. Brill-iant.

RE: The fix on this version is to go to the apple logo in the corner, choose system preferences, choose general and click on Close windows when quitting an application.

I'm running OS El Capitan, ver. 10.11.2 and this 'fix' doesn't exist. Also, I can't find anything either on my own or with 'search' for /Library/Applications support/microsoft/excel. In fact, none of these 'fixes' apply in my case.