Calling Mac experts

[Steve E]

I have just migrated to a MacBook Pro and whilst the Mac is great I am having a few issues with the way that it works. The big issues that I have are with Excel and PowerPoint.
When I go to open any Excel or Powerpoint file, why does my Mac open all of the files for that application (they seem to open like a slide show) but not stop on the one that I have tried to open? To get to the file I want I have to go to Window and then go to the drop down menu to open the particular file that I want.
Is there any way that I can set my Mac to just open the file I want and not go through all of this 'scanning' through all of the files in the application.
I have to do powerpoint presentations for work and all this scanning through is not making me look very professional and is driving me nuts.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ianf]

Are you going via 'all files' in the finder? It'll draw a quick view of all power points etc. on a wide bar. It's not actually opening every file of that type to its own window is it?

Use your 'home' (name) folder in the sidebar and set the view to icons or details and navigate to where you filed them. Or documents, or any other folder you've dragged there.

Office will also show recent opened files the same way, down the bottom left I usually click 'today' to cut that down.

When I get home ill have a play, I think you can turn off the gallery but because its not a cocoa app, the open file dialogue is handcrafted by MS and a bit stupid,

 

[Loiq]

can you do a screen grab of the problem?

 

[ianf]

Cmd shift 4

 

[Madamot]

Might be because you're closing Excel while the last files you worked on are still open. Then when you re-open Excel, it tries to be helpful and re-opens the last things that you were working on.

The way around this would be to cmd-W each open Excel document window to close it before cmd-Q to quit Excel.

This should then mean that the next time you open Excel, it would then start by asking you what you want to open rather than opening them for you.

Hope this helps.

 

[Backmarker]

Firstly, I don't recognise the problem. Which version of Excel/Powerpoint are you using?

Left field answer: Have you closed down all the files to start with?. Unlike Windows, if you close all the files in one application it does not shut the application down. Similarly, if you close the Application (Program) down with several files open, it does not shut each file down. So if you shut the Application (Program) down with (say) 6 files open, then when you re-open the Application (Program), in this case Excel or PowerPoint, it will re-open all 6 files automatically. So if you double click on one file to open it, then it will boot the Application (Program) (Excel/PowerPoint) and the program will restore itself with all 6 files open.

Like I said, don't recognise the problem, so left field answer is all I can offer.

 

[Steve E]

Might be because you're closing Excel while the last files you worked on are still open. Then when you re-open Excel, it tries to be helpful and re-opens the last things that you were working on.

The way around this would be to cmd-W each open Excel document window to close it before cmd-Q to quit Excel.

This should then mean that the next time you open Excel, it would then start by asking you what you want to open rather than opening them for you.

Hope this helps.

Woo Hoo!
Being new to Macs I did not realise that this what you need to do to close a programme. All now working happily thankyou very much.
Must get book on how to deal with Macs