How do I prevent Word from redisplaying multiple minimized open documents when opening a new document?

Anonymous

When I have multiple Word documents open, but minimized and I open an already created document, all of the minimized documents will get redisplayed (ie. maximized) to the screen. Additionally, I believe the last edited document will be displayed on top and its listing on the start/task bar will begin flashing and it will not turn off until the flashing listing is clicked. I then have to reminimize all of the documents and navigate to the document that I originally wanted open.

As a user, I would want all of the open minimized documents to remain minimized and the document that I'm opening to be presented without having to click anything on the start/task bar.

dmurf

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Anonymous

Try this: Right-click on the lower taskbar (the dark band that runs across the bottom of your screen), in an empty space, not on an icon. You should see a small window open up that gives you different options for displaying the documents you are working on. Cascade windows is sometimes helpful if you are going back and forth between different documents. You can drag the edges of a document so that you can see two documents at the same time. You just need to click on one to bring it more to the front. Stacked windows is another option. Then you will see all of the documents at once. That may be what you have had selected. Side-by-side windows is another. Experiment with these options. It may help you.

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Anonymous

A newly opened document will not cause other minimized or open Word documents to come to the front. But the newly opened document will not come to the front itself, it launches as an open window.

The easiest way to eliminate that is by using keyboard shortcuts:

To minimize all the windows and get back to the desktop: Windows + D

To open a new word blank document : CTRL + N

To open a word document from a location : CTRL + O

There's an option under Word Options / Advanced / Display, named Show all windows in the taskbar. Turning it off hides all Word icons in the taskbar but one. This way the described behavior disappears but at the same time goes the ease of restoring a minimized document.

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Anonymous

2013-08-04T05:47:40+00:00

No worries... copy your defalt values and command values into a text file, separated by the different key names, and save it before you change them. Then you can change them back should you not be happy with the performance.

I find that my copy, cut, and paste functions are working fine... even between open windows of Word. See what you think... then let us know.

I must say that it sure is a pleasure not to chase maximized windows when opening a new document!!! :-)

SOLVED!

OK, I tried it, saving my original values just in case. I must say that so far, I'm quite amazed as it does seem to be working on my Windows XP SP3 PC with Office 2007! How wonderful! I'll have to see if I notice any subtle changes between programs in terms of DDE being disabled in Word. I don't use advanced DDE functions (macros, Visual Basic, etc.) so I doubt there will be any issues. Cutting and pasting seems to still be working fine for me as well!

THANKS SO MUCH EVERYONE FOR PROVIDING VARIOUS SOLUTIONS. My case seemed to be one of the most difficult cases, since none of the other solutions seemed to work so I'm certainly glad this one does. I hope this solution works for others that have had no luck so far as well!
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Anonymous

2013-07-07T23:00:06+00:00

Hi, This problem was driving me insane. I managed to fix it on my Windows 7 Pro desktop with Office 2013.

My registry had these settings under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open\command:

Default: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\WINWORD.EXE" /n "%1" /o "%u"

Command: yh1BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkWORDFiles>!2-1&m&8y@Nmo2r)^f-C /n "%1" /o "%u"

I changed them to this (removing the, "/o "%u"" and adding "/q" before "/n" to remove the splash screen :

Default: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\WINWORD.EXE" /q /n "%1"

Command: yh1BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkWORDFiles>!2-1&m&8y@Nmo2r)^f-C /q /n "%1"

I did the same for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8\shell\Open\command, and am now able to open other files without restoring or maxmizing other minimized Word .doc or .docx files. Please let me know if this works for you as well.

Regards,

Keith

This seems to work for me fine on opening files on local and network drives. On Windows 7 x64, running Office 2010.

I have one question though. I open documents from Sharepoint also. Does anyone know which HKCR reg key i need to hack to get this working for Sharepoint?

EDIT: Nevermind. I think i have figured it out.

Whacked in /q like above for this location. Did the trick for me.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\OpenAsReadOnly\command

Thanks, DM.
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Anonymous

2010-06-23T13:39:43+00:00

Very weird. I've never used that combo of OS and Office, so I cannot test to see if it is widespread, but I'll see if I can get someone else to test it.
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