Paul wrote this over at AccountingWeb I have created an Excel file, but everytime I open it, 2 identical files are opened. They are shown as .xls:1 and .xls:2. Why is this happening, and how do I stop it? In Explorer, only one file is shown, as .xls Paul Sanderson Jim added I think that you have managed to set up two different views of the sames files (hence, why only one file in Explorer). I have accidently done that before and never been able to figure out how to get back to just one view. Mark told Paul and Jim how to get rid of it: You've opened a new window within a spreadsheet. Easiest way to get rid of the extra window is to open the file and close one of the windows by clicking on the "x" box on the top right hand side. Not the "x" to close Excel but the one below that. This closes the extra window. Then save the file. This will get rid of the extra window permanantly. I piled right in with how they got it in the first place and then confirmed how to get rid of it: One really useful feature of Excel is that it allows us to take a file, any file, and open two or even more views of it and have those two or more views on screen at the same time. This is useful where you are working with a large and/or complex file and need to see what is happening here and there at the same time. It's also useful when developing complex formulae and so on. However, you don't want it so here's how to get it and here's how to get rid of it: to get it: Open a file in Excel click Window in the menu bar at the top of the screen select New Window click Window again select Arrange choose Tiled (choose any of them but just choose Tiled for now!) hey presto what do you see but TWO views of the same file: one called book1:1 and book1:2 to get rid of it: close the one you don't want, and it doesn't matter which one, by clicking on the X in the top left of its screen and it will disappear like magic and you will be left with little old book1 on its own. So there you are! DW