Do you mean how do you stop maple from evaluating a worksheet that has code edited regions?

  From the Maple help see Setting the Autoexecute Feature

   To remove the autoexecute setting in a region

      1. Select the region to be cleared

      2. From the Format menu, select Autoexecute, and then Clear.

            To remove all autoexecution in a worksheet, select Clear All.

Or is it that you don't want the startup page not to load?

  For this one you could change the worksheet loaded at startup under the Tools->Options->Interface tab and apply globally.

It is appearing that your use of Exceltools was the problem.  Use ExcelTools.

Another option is to use something like matrixplot with the option heights=histogram

currentdir() will give you the path of your current worknig directory.

Please reference this topic http://www.mapleprimes.com/questions/37691-How-Do-I-Change-The-Background-Colour

In a nutshell basically use windows desktop setup to alter the colors.  Failing wanting to do that you can change the font colors easily with Format->Styles or manage style sets and create your own.  As for the background (using the ref above) create a 1x1 table and change the colour in the cell. 

Speed performances for 2015 are much improved - link has been updated in initial post above - All three M algebra systems now have similar speed performances.

Maple 17 user manual and programming guide pdf's can be downloaded from here

http://maplesoft.com/products/maple/history/documentation.aspx

Under View select Show/Hide Contents... then uncheck box labelled Execution Group Boundaries

This problem could be applied to a similar issue in deciding which lengths to cut in set lengths of framing.

Home depot sells pine colonial casing in 7ft. lengths only.  I have 4 windows and one inside door (both sides) to frame.  The windows are 2 - 42x20 windows, 1-30x30 window and 1-16x20 window, the door is 72x32. 

What is the minimum number 7ft framing pieces I need to finish the job? and how do I cut the wood?

So I want to minimize my waste and hence minimize my spending.  

It appears readdata stops reading when it gets to a comma.  Maple's readdata also regards spaces as a seperator.

readdata("d:/test.txt",string,5) will read in your data

Another less desireable more complex/expensive way to convert the list back into the original number, is to create a procedure that manipulates the list created by convert using commands from the StringTools and ListTools packages. 

a:=convert(197,base,10)

                                    

invconv:=proc(a)
  uses StringTools:
  parse(DeleteSpace(Join(map(convert,ListTools:-Reverse(a),string))))
end proc:

invconv(a)

                197

collect seems to get rid of the negative sign and re-orient the values as well

ee := -ln(-a/(b-c));
ff := combine(ee, symbolic);
ln(collect(exp(ff), a));

                     

Expanding on Kitonums answer we could also create a procedure

deg2rad:=proc(d,m,s)
  local a: 
  a:=convert((d+1/60*m+1/60^2*s)*degrees,radians):
  print(a,evalf(a)):
end proc:

deg2rad(58,28,18)

Try listplot

with(plots):
listplot(DataTable3[..,1])  #plots the first column of your data

In the Maplesoft application center here http://maplesoft.com/applications/NewContent.aspx

Or at Mobius apps here http://mobius.maplesoft.com/maplenet/mobius/

Various other webpages also exist around the web.