Wouldn't it be really useful and save time if you were able to see a preview of your Excel workbook? This Excel tip gives a you a great visual clue as to which workbook you are selecting to open.
This is especially useful if you have a lot of workbooks to choose from.
When you open an Excel workbook using the Open dialog box, there are a number of options as to how your files are displayed.
You can change the way these files are displayed by selecting the arrow on the view icon in the Open dialog box.
Let's take a quick look at these different views that are available.

• Thumbnails- This is the filename shown with a large icon.
  
• Tiles- This is the filename shown along with the file type and size.
  
• Icons- This is the same as title above but with no file type and size.
  
• List- Filenames are shown but with no other information supplied.
  
• Details- Filenames shown with other information, the list can be sorted by clicking on any of the columns.
  
• Properties- Displays information about the selected file, if you have any extra information in the properties panel then this is where it is displayed.
  
• Preview- displays a preview of the file.
  This is the option we want to use.
  

Let us look at setting up the workbook with a preview.
For Excel 2007

• Hit the Office Button
• Select Prepare on the menu that pops up on your screen
• Hit Properties to display the properties pane
• Click document properties and in the drop down list and choose advanced properties
• Select Save Thumbnails For All Excel Documents options

After you have saved your workbook/Excel file using this method, a thumbnail style picture is created with a snapshot of the upper left side of the first page or tab of your Excel workbook.
If you open, make changes and save the workbook again, the image that will be shown in in your preview will also automatically be updated to reflect these changes.
There are a few restrictions:- If you workbook is password protected, then this preview will not be shown even if you select this option.
Excel will override or ignore this setting due to the security restrictions you want placed on your workbook by adding the password.
There is also no default setting for saving workbooks with this type of preview in Excel, you will have to manually set this.
Even with having to manually save workbooks using this method, the amount of time that can be saved by using the mall review thumbnail is far outweighs the steps it takes to carry out the task.