Excel equivalent to Word's normal.dot

Using XP and Office 2003

My husband got a new computer and was able to copy his normal.dot file over
which kept all the modifications he had made in Word to things like his
toolbars, etc.

What is the equivalent file for Excel and where is it found? He has made a
number of modifications to his toolbars and other settings that he would
like to just copy over to his new machine. Is there an Excel equivalent to
Word's normal.dot?

There really isn't an equivalent file for Excel.

Excel does have a couple of template files that it uses.

Book.xlt and Sheet.xlt (both located in the XLStart folder). The book.xlt file
is used as the basis for new workbooks when the user hits the New Icon on the
standard toolbar. Sheet.xlt is used as the basis for new worksheets added to
existing workbooks.

Lots of people have a file called personal.xls that is also stored in the
XLStart folder. People use this file mostly for macros that they want available
when excel starts.

These files may not even exist for your husband. And the personal.xls file can
be named anything he likes (if he has one).

ps.

Saved from a previous post:

I have a short list of things to copy/update when we changed pc's at work.

It's not complete, but may help you.

Word/Excel files:

FileName Use
custom.dic personal dictionary
*.acl personal autocorrect list
mssp2_en.exc personal exclusion dictionary
normal.dot default (for new documents) template
*.dot Any other templates you've made

*.xlb personal toolbar
book.xlt defaults for new workbooks
sheet.xlt defaults for new worksheets
personal.xl* personal macros
*.xlt Any other templates you've made

And don't forget any:
Local files (If you don’t store on LAN)
(Settings) Directories and other defaults (Tools|Options stuff)

====
I've found the easiest way to find these files is to use Windows start
button|Search.

Remember to look through hidden folders/files. And if I find multiple files of
the same name, I open excel (say), then make a minor change to that file. Then
search again. Then I can pick out the current version of the file.

That said, if you're upgrading from an older version of office, I wouldn't copy
the toolbar. (I would take good notes to help me rebuild this toolbar (maybe
even fix it up a bit).)

Same with the normal.dot (I'd let MSWord rebuild that--then just copy|paste any
macros into it manually.)

The *.xlt (book.xlt, sheet.xlt), I'd copy over, but then open and resave them
using the newer version.

BK wrote:
>
> Using XP and Office 2003
>
> My husband got a new computer and was able to copy his normal.dot file over
> which kept all the modifications he had made in Word to things like his
> toolbars, etc.
>
> What is the equivalent file for Excel and where is it found? He has made a
> number of modifications to his toolbars and other settings that he would
> like to just copy over to his new machine. Is there an Excel equivalent to
> Word's normal.dot?

--

Dave Peterson