Version 1.5
Long Filename Support for Excel 5.0

This document describes the installation and use of WideOpen for Microsoft Excel, which will allow you to use long filenames and many other features of the Windows 95 common dialogs in Microsoft Excel 5.0.  (All product names mentioned in this document are trademarks of their respective companies.)  Please read ORDER.DOC for a general description of WideOpen’s features.  

This program is shareware.  If you use WideOpen, please see ORDER.DOC for information on registering copies for your favorite applications.
Installation
Before installing WideOpen, please uninstall any previous versions and restart Windows 95. To automatically install WideOpen for Excel, open the document XLINST.EXE and click on the Install button.   The install program will copy WIDEN14.EXE to your Windows folder and WIDEOPEN.XLS to your Excel startup folder.   You should see a dialog box that says “WideOpen installed” and you should be ready to go.   If there are any warning messages or other problems, please see the section at the end of this document on manual installation and troubleshooting.
Using WideOpen
The next time you start Excel, WideOpen will automatically substitute the Windows 95 common dialogs for the Excel file dialogs whenever you select Open, Save, or SaveAs from the File menu or toolbar.   You are free to use long filenames, right-click menus, and so forth.

The WideOpen SaveAs dialog has one little quirk due to the way Excel works.  When saving a file under a new name, the file will be briefly closed so that WideOpen can give it the new long filename, then quickly reopen under the new filename.
Using the old Excel Dialogs
Occasionally you may need to use a feature of the Excel file dialogs which are not supported by the Windows 95 common dialogs.  In that case, you can temporarily revert back to the standard Excel dialogs by holding down the shift key as you select the operation from the file menu.   For example, supposed you need to give a dcoument a password.  If hold down shift as you click on SaveAs, the standard Excel save dialog will appear with its options for setting  passwords, and, as long as you keep the same name for the document, the long file will be retained.  
Version Info and Customization
If you select “Help | About WideOpen”, you will get version  info on WideOpen, and by clicking on the macros tab, you can view or modify the WideOpen macros, should you wish to do so.  However, please do not distribute modified version of WideOpen without permission.  When you are done looking at the WideOpen window, you should click on the OK button; closing the WideOpen window will disable WideOpen until the next time you use start Excel.
Uninstallation
To permanantly uninstall WideOpen, open XLINSTALL.XLS from your WideOpen installation disk and click on the uninstall button.   To do the same thing manually, delete WIDEOPEN.XLS from your WIDEOPEN folder and WIDEN14.EXE from you Windows folder.

To temporarily deactivate WideOpen for Excel, you can simply “Help | Unhide WideOpen” from the mnubar and close WideOpen workbook.
Manual Installation and Troubleshooting
If WideOpen is working correctly on your system, you can skip this section.   If WideOpen isn’t working correctly, it is likely that something unusual about your system configuration confused the install program, and that the problem can be solved by manual installing WideOpen.  To manually install WideOpen for Excel: 

1. 	Copy WIDEN14.EXE to your WINDOWS folder.  (If you have already installed WideOpen support for some other application, this has probably been done already.) 
2. 	Copy WIDEOPEN.XLS to the XLSTART folder inside your EXCEL program folder (for example, C:\EXCEL\XLSTART or C:\MSOFFICE\EXCEL\XLSTART.)   

If you don’t know where the XLSTART folder is, you can use the “Find  | Files or Computers” option on the Start menu to locate it.   (For those who know and care about what the following means:  you are actually free to copy WIDEN14.EXE to any folder on your path, not just the Windows directory .)   

Here a few hints to help you track down problems.  

•	If you don’t see the WideOpen notice after the start Excel, this means that WIDEOPEN.XLS is not in the Excel start-up folder.  Double check to make sure that is there.  
•	If Excel says ‘Remote data not accessible…’, that means that Excel is unable to find WIDEN14.EXE in the path.    Be sure that it is copied to the Windows folder; if that fails, try putting it in the Excel folder.
•	If you are having problems, be sure that you don’t have an obsolete version of WIDEN.EXE on your path.
•	Anytime a WideOpen operation is running, you can hit escape to cancel it and go back to your Excel spreadsheet, even if Excel is displaying the hourglass cursor.

You can contact  me at pbogle@lcs.mit.edu if you are still having difficulties with installation.