How to open 2 excel instances by using XP schedule tasks?

I am using XP with SP3 and Excel 2003, when I setup a schedule task to open
file1.xls at 9 am, and open file2.xls at 9:15 am, does anyone know whether
schedule task will 2 excel instances or 1 excel instance?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Eric

Dunno....

But have you tried setting up a shedule to open file1 in 5 minutes from now
and file2 in, say 7 minutes?

There are, I think at least 3 ways that you can see how many instances you
are running:

1) I think its true in 2003 that when they are both open, if you look in
Windows/switch windows only the file running in that instance will show, in
which case you can ctrl-F6 between them. In other words, if two files are
open in 2 instances, you won't be able to ctrl-f6 between them.

2) Have a look in Task Manager- Applications tab which should tell you how
many instances are running.

3) If that isn't immediately clear, try closing Excel by clicking just once
on the red X close box - the "outer one" for Excel, not the "inner one" for
the actual file. If both files are closed by the one click, you had only one
instance running, but if one file remains open, you have closed one instance
and have one instance still open.

Hope I've hit the mark for you.

Cheers

"Eric" wrote:

I am using XP with SP3 and Excel 2003, when I setup a schedule task to open
file1.xls at 9 am, and open file2.xls at 9:15 am, does anyone know whether
schedule task will 2 excel instances or 1 excel instance?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Eric

I would guess that it would depend on what you use as the scheduler.

I use a program called Cron (or CronLite??). I could use that to start a .VBS
file that would create a new excel application each time it ran. (In fact, I
could use excel to start a new excel application to do the same thing.)

But I could also use my scheduling program to start an excel instance (separate
and hidden from any that the users are running), then start an excel file that
does the rest of the scheduling and that could use that same instance.

But I'm not sure what you're using and what you really want to do.

In case you want to read about scheduling programs using excel...

Chip Pearson's site explains it:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/OnTime.aspx

Eric wrote:

I am using XP with SP3 and Excel 2003, when I setup a schedule task to open
file1.xls at 9 am, and open file2.xls at 9:15 am, does anyone know whether
schedule task will 2 excel instances or 1 excel instance?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Eric

--

Dave Peterson