Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Closing Documents after a Hyperlink.

Closing Documents after a Hyperlink

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 20, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007 and 2010


When Tom hyperlinks from one Word document to another, he would like the previous document to close automatically. He notes that if he has several documents hyperlinking to several others, he can end up with quite a few Word documents open at the same time.

Believe it or not, this behavior is built into Word and, unfortunately cannot be changed. You could, however, bypass hyperlinks all together and create some sort of macro or macro button to open the new document and close the old one. The ways in which you would implement such a workaround will depend on the names and locations of the documents you want to access.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11700) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Closing Documents after a Hyperlink.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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