Originally Posted By: tanstaafl.
Or, is there some setting somewhere within my 2002 version of Excel to turn this "feature" off?

I don't have Excel here, but, if it helps you on your search through the preferences windows, the Microsoft name for the "feature" that you (and I) hate so much is "MDI". In theory it's an older design than the obviously right way of doing it (which Microsoft call "multi-SDI"), so if an older Excel had a setting for it, so should a newer one.

Peter