Microsoft Knowledge Base

WINDOWS               | MACINTOSH

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.0a

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Excel, if two windows share the same caption, you may experience difficulties when you attempt to do either of the following:

• Activate one of the windows with a Visual Basic Activate method

  -or-

• Unhide a hidden window that has the same title as a visible window

MORE INFORMATION

The caption of a window is the text that appears in the title bar of the window. For example, if you create a new workbook, its caption will probably be Bookn (or some variation of Bookn), where n is the number of open books. You can change the caption of the active window by using the following Visual Basic command

   ActiveWindow.Caption = "Test"

When Microsoft Excel encounters a situation involving two or more windows that share the same caption, the windows are considered in reverse order of creation: that is, the more recently created windows are given priority over windows that were created earlier.

This prioritization may cause problems when you are working with multiple windows (particularly if you are trying to activate or unhide windows).

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

To create two windows that share the same caption, do the following:

1. Create a new workbook ("Book1") that contains a Visual Basic module and a worksheet.

2. In cell A1 in the worksheet, enter "Book1" (without the quotation marks).

3. Enter the following subroutine into the module:

   '-------------------------------------------------------------------

         Sub ChangeCaption()
            ActiveWindow.Caption = "Test"       'changes the window's caption
         End Sub
         '-------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   

4. Create another new workbook ("Book2") that contains a worksheet.

5. In cell A1 in the worksheet, enter "Book2".

6. While Book2 is active, choose Macro from the Tools menu.

7. Select "Book1!ChangeCaption" from the list of macros. Choose Run.

1. From the Window menu, choose Book1.

2. While Book1 is active, choose Macro from the Tools menu.

3. From the list of macros, select "ChangeCaption." Choose Run.

1. From the Window menu, choose Arrange. Select the Tiled option and

       choose OK.
   

2. In each workbook, activate the worksheet. This allows you to see cell

       A1 for each sheet, this cell contains the original name of each
       workbook.
   

Examples

The following examples illustrate two of the problems you may encounter when you are working with two or more windows share the same caption.

Problem 1:

To get a better understanding of the problems that arise when you activate a window when two windows share the same caption, follow the steps below:

1. Create a new workbook ("Book3") that contains a Visual Basic module.

2. Enter the following subroutine into the module:

      '----------------------------------------------------------------------
      Sub Activator()
         Windows("Test").Activate              'activate the window "Test"
      End Sub
      '----------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   

3. From the Window menu, choose Arrange. Select the Tiled option and then choose OK.

If you run the Activator subroutine, the window that becomes active varies, depending on which window is active when you run it:

   Active When Subroutine Starts   Active When Subroutine Ends
   -----------------------------------------------------------
   Test(Book1)                     Test(Book1)
   Test(Book2)                     Test(Book2)
   Book3                           Test(Book2)

• If the active window has the same caption as the window that is to be activated, keep the active window active.
• If the captions are different, activate the most recently created window that has the correct caption.

For this reason, if the window Test(Book1) is active, you may find it impossible to activate Test(Book2), or vice versa. In some cases, you may find it possible to activate another window that has the same caption by first activating a third window and then activating the desired window.

Problem 2:

To get a better understanding of the problems that arise when you unhide a Window that shares the same caption as a visible window, follow the steps below:

1. Activate Test (Book2).

2. From the Window menu, choose Hide.

1. From the Window menu, choose Unhide.

2. Select "Test" from the list of hidden workbooks. Choose OK.

1. Activate Test(Book1).

2. From the Window menu, choose Hide.

1. From the Window menu, choose Unhide.

2. Select "Test" from the list of hidden workbooks. Choose OK.

In the first case, hiding and unhiding Test(Book2), when you request Microsoft Excel to unhide Test, the newest "Test" is Test(Book2); because it is hidden, Microsoft Excel unhides the window.

In the second case, hiding and unhiding Test(Book1), when you request for Microsoft Excel to unhide Test, the newest "Test" is still Test(Book2); because that window is already visible, Microsoft Excel assumes that no further processing of the request is necessary, and Test(Book1) remains hidden.

To unhide Test(Book1), you must first close Test(Book2) or change the caption of the Test(Book2).