Install Excel

New Excel Install

Just our suggestions, of course.

Options To Configure

Under Options>Advanced>General, put location of personal.xlsb, book.xlsb & sheet.xlsb (i.e. C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART)

Though you need the real link because this textbox won't take the %UserName% variable, unlike Windows Explorer

See Also: Useful Excel Locations at administratorrights.com

Jot down the locations of AutoRecover & Templates (you shouldn't change them unless you have to), to create shortcuts on the desktop later.
To prevent Microsoft from trying to sell you its cloud services, default save to your own computer.

The 'Backstage' option is a matter of preference (see the 'save as' section below).

Note: The administrator may attempt to restrict your ability to uncheck "show additional places for saving, even if sign-in may be required" and modifying the "default local file location".

Other Preferences (optional)

Default Save Location

Also see 'Backstage' option shown earlier.

The Save As dialog may look very different when running Microsoft 365 (e.g. with OneDrive and SharePoint). The trick is getting the Desktop (or whatever other location) to be pinned amongst all the other Microsoft-sanctioned garbage. The goal is to keep documents from going here: C:\Users\%UserName%\Documents (or whatever other location you have trouble finding).

Autocorrect Options

To install math shortcuts, make sure Word & Excel dictionary languages match before running 'Run Once In Word' code (links to a Microsoft forum solution).

Ignore the 'Language' section of the Options
Focus instead on review>language in Word & set default there.

While in the Proofing options dialog, click the Auto-Correct Options, and go into the 'Auto-Format As You Type' tab:

Folder Management (Custom Macro Setup Only)

excelmacro Folder
- Go to: C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns
- Copy Add-Ins set (n = 9) *.xlam
- Create shortcut on desktop
manual_start Sub-Folder
- Go to: C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
- Copy PERSONAL.XLSB + book.xltx & sheet.xltx
- Create shortcut on desktop
[only if needed] static Folder in root drive
- Create: C:\Static
- Can create shortcut on desktop
Everything else should be empty
- C:\Users\%UserName%\Documents\Custom Office Templates
- C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates (though it is where normal.dotm is located)
- C:\%programfiles%\Microsoft Office\root\Templates [or %programfiles(x86)%]
- C:\%programfiles%\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\STARTUP [or %programfiles(x86)%]
- C:\%programfiles%\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\Library [or %programfiles(x86)%]
Ribbon setup
- Ribbon shortcut on desktop to D or G drive (i.e. should plan where to put custom configurations of extension *.exportedUI)
- Put ribbon shortcut in C:\Users\%UserName%\Documents (the default folder Excel goes to when clicking 'import' button on the customize ribbon menu)

Other Misc. Configuration Preferences

No instructions given, should be self-explanatory. Obviously optional though.

VBE Preferences

Sharing Your Startup Folder (with another computer and/or user)

This warning is normal

Note: If another computer/user doesn't have Excel open at the moment, it is likely trash from a previous session where Excel crashed unexpectedly.

Warning: Do not modify the macros (either in PERSONAL.XLSB or any loaded add-ins) in this instance, unless you are certain the other computer/user will never make changes and will never save, intentionally or not. The saving process with competing versions is nightmarish!

Opening Another Instance (on the same computer)

This warning is also normal (with another instance only)

Note: Obviously, click 'Read-Only'. But when editing macros later on, it is easy to get confused between the different windows, so be careful.

Warning: Again, do not edit macros in this instance. You risk losing your work.

Complication #1: If you do however, makes changes in this instance, you will get this error message when trying to save:

Complication #2: When trying to leave, you may get this error message for any unsaved macro file (usually when some sort of automatic saving is activated, such as a programmed macro triggered by the BeforeClose event):

Warning: It might force you to save another copy elsewhere (for macros: e.g. desktop if it is Application.DefaultFilePath, for personal: e.g. C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART or Application.StartupPath), often without a prompt. This is the kiss of death! It means you have inadvertently created a split version of your macros. On top of having to consolidate the changes later, it may also make certain macros unavailable.

But the real problem for PERSONAL.XLSB is opening Excel the next time. You might get a "two file with the same name" error when you start up again. So before that happens, you need to find the newly saved file (it will be in some default folder, not the one you actually use) and replace the old one (in the shared folder with the manual open).

Microsoft Word Options

First Steps

Customize ribbon to add Developer Tab (and remove any new third-party extensions added to Word by default)
Open COM Add-Ins & uncheck anything unwanted
Modify normal.dotm to add any macros (add a module first) & then add buttons to make for easy access (add custom group first, then choose commands from 'Macros' – adding a appropriate button too by renaming – can also add a keyboard shortcut through the run macro dialog)

Other Useful Word Feature

I wish this option was available in Excel!

Confused About Macros?

This table might help (or it could confuse you even more!):

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