Coherence mode (5160) spawns new processes

A

abro

Bit poster
Hello,
I'm not sure if this is a bug or just a characteristic of Parallels based on my own usage habits.

I rely heavily on the Windows guest OS for MS Office and a few other apps. I've noticed that when I open a .doc or .xls file from within the Mac environment, Parallels will launch in Coherence mode and launch Word or Excel. This is perfect. However, if I double-click on another .doc or .xls file, Parallels spawns another instance of Word or Excel and uses that to open the second doc.

With Word, this is not a big issue, but within Excel, it's a challenge. The issue is that Excel will not let you paste live formulas from one instance to another, only from one workbook to another within the same instance. The distinction is subtle, but if you live in Excel, it's a source of frustration. The workaround is simply to open your Excel docs from within the application rather than from the desktop. This saps some efficiency from my workflow, but is tolerable.

My question is this: Is there a way to force Parallels to use the running instance of Word or Excel to open that second file? Clearly Parallels is aware of the processes running within the Guest OS, but I don't know a way to leverage this awareness toward my problem.

If anyone has any ideas or thoughts on this, please advise. I'm a big fan of Parallels in general, just trying to figure out if I can get back this lost efficiency somehow.

Thanks in advance for any feedback,
Adam
 
Ben,
To be clear, are you saying that the Coherence mode in earlier builds will use the existing MS Excel or Word process in the Windows Guest OS to open the second Excel or Word file that I double-click within the Mac environment?

Or are you saying that the Coherence mode in 5160 is messy due to SmartSelect?

Adam
 
The way that smart-select launches programs depends on what the program (in windows) does when you launch it from the command line. This is due to the behind-the-scenes way that Parallels launches things.

In this case, it looks like excel is launching another process. Check to see if there is an option somewhere in Excel that makes it only use one process. There is one in OpenOffice (it is on by default), but I don't have Excel so I can't check.
 
Hmm. Thanks for the feedback, it helps me to conceptualize exactly what I'm up against here. At first glance, it seems that I can only regulate the use of additional instances from within Windows Explorer by tinkering with the DDE settings tied to the .XLS file extension. (I am running Office Excel 2003 for now until work drags me along into an upgrade.)

I don't see any Excel command-line switches to "force" it to use a single already running instance to handle files that it opens, so it may be that the issue comes down to Parallels not using DDE via Windows Explorer to handle the workbook opening action. I assume that Parallels is not using DDE, but I actually have no idea.

The help feature with Parallels did not shed any light on this issue either, but perhaps someone from the Parallels team or another veteran Parallels user has some ideas.

TIA for all of your help,
Adam
 
I had this problem briefly, when Smart Select first came in, and it was solved thereafter by disabling Smart Select, and doing apple+i in the Mac on a .xls file and making sure the "open with" section specified the Mac Excel, then also ticking the "change all" bit. Same for .doc and Word.
 
Mike,

Thanks for your thoughts on this issue. Is the final outcome of your solution that you use Mac Excel for your .xls files? Or does it result in using Windows Excel or your .xls files?

I only have Windows Excel available at present.

Thanks again,
Adam
 
abro said:
Ben,
To be clear, are you saying that the Coherence mode in earlier builds will use the existing MS Excel or Word process in the Windows Guest OS to open the second Excel or Word file that I double-click within the Mac environment?

Or are you saying that the Coherence mode in 5160 is messy due to SmartSelect?

Adam
Click to expand...

In response, Im sayin' the latter, and not sure if it was the combo of coherence & smartselect, it is just a recounting in my head what was going on just before parallels leaves the building.

this happens in 4560 but it doesnt crash all the time, yeah i need to fix associations but in 4560 it is a minor annoyance. but in 5160 it seemed to become major
 
abro said:
Mike,

Thanks for your thoughts on this issue. Is the final outcome of your solution that you use Mac Excel for your .xls files? Or does it result in using Windows Excel or your .xls files?

I only have Windows Excel available at present.

Thanks again,
Adam
Click to expand...

I always use Mac Excel for .xls files.

If you only have Windows Excel, then enable smart select and shared apps etc, and do the apple+i to choose Windows Excel. I haven't actually tried this way round, but when I had what was for me the problem that all .xls were opening in Windows, the apple+i showed the Windows Excel as the default app for opening xls, so should all work.
 
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