Saving a Workbook Thumbnail

When you use the Open dialog box in Excel, you can configure what you see in the dialog box. One of the settings you can make is for Excel to display a preview of whatever workbook you select in the left side of the dialog box.

You may have already noticed that some of your workbooks do not have a preview available in the Open dialog box. If this is the case, and you want to have a preview available, you need to make sure that the workbook is saved with the preview enabled. If the workbook is loaded in Excel, follow these general steps:

1. Click the Office button, Prepare, and then Properties. Excel displays some of the workbook properties just above the worksheet on the screen.
2. Click the Document Properties drop-down list (top left corner of the visible properties) and choose Advanced Properties. Excel displays the full Properties dialog box for the workbook.
3. Make sure the Summary tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Select the Save Thumbnails for All Excel Documents check box.
5. Click on OK to close the Properties dialog box.
6. Click the Save tool on the toolbar, or choose Save from the File menu.

At this point you can close the workbook. Now when you display the Open dialog box, and you have the preview feature turned on, the workbook displays a preview in the dialog box.