Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 26, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Steven always keeps a couple of documents open and minimized in his Taskbar so that he can access them throughout the workday. Whenever he opens a different document, though, in the process of opening the new document Word restores these minimized documents so that they are no longer minimized. Steven wonders if there is a way to open a document without Word pulling up all these previously minimized documents.
This can be an incredibly frustrating problem. It has been reported to Microsoft, and the only word is that they are "currently investigating" the issue. I'm not holding my breath for a fix, though, because the report was made in February 2016, the "investigating" was noted in June 2017, and here we are over a year later (over two years from the initial report) with no resolution. You can see the original report and comment thread here:
https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/12259911
There does, however, seem to be a workaround, though it is a bit cumbersome. Let's say that you have a document open and it is minimized on the Taskbar. Hover the mouse pointer over that Taskbar icon and then middle-click the mouse. (Middle clicking is done by clicking on the mouse's scroll wheel.) When you do, Word displays the familiar Open screen. Open a document from this screen, and your previously minimized Word documents stay minimized.
Like I said—a bit cumbersome. Any other combination of clicking or right-clicking, though, does not produce the desired results.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13557) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021.
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