Word Research pane shut off

Anonymous
2010-02-16T15:38:50+00:00

How do I turn off the Research paine when I open Word?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2010-02-21T03:20:20+00:00

You will get a close symbol on the top right corner of the Research Pane, you can click on the close symbol and turn it off.

 Or you can click on the icon for Research Pane on the Toolbar at the top.

 If this does not resolve the issue, follow the basic Troubleshooting steps provided in the article given below:

Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ ) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541.

Ruchi Bisht, Microsoft Answers Support Engineer.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-18T23:54:14+00:00

    Scott

    Does the line of code work to stop it ever appearing in the first place? Or does this setting get forgotten when Word is restarted?

    Application.CommandBars("Research").Enabled = False

    Yes, I agree the Research Pane is an abomination and there should be a way to kill it off for good WITHOUT resorting to VBA but until that method is available, VBA is the best solution we have.

    I haven't seen the issue of the close button not working but then again if the pane is spontaneously appearing on your machine perhaps the close button IS working but the spontaneous trigger reopens it immediately.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-18T20:47:15+00:00

    When the pane opens, there is an X to close it.

    Thank you Captain Obvious!

    Now try reading the posts. Seriously? We've had to repeat ad nauseum that clicking your little X does NOT help. As soon as we try to do anything in the document it opens itself and blocks any attempt at editing. Do you really think we didn't try closing it FIRST? We're not idiots so quit being so patronizing. If your suggestion worked, this thread wouldn't exist. What we need is a way to close the pain (much more accurate term for this particular pane) that actually shuts it down rather than temporarily removing it from our screens. I'm also nearly 100% positive that this isn't a alt-click error. I've had it happen when my fingers weren't on the keys (e.g., selecting text with the mouse).

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-02-18T17:28:57+00:00

    When the pane opens, there is an X to close it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-02-18T15:29:22+00:00

    No, that answer does not help.  The Research pane (or pain) appeared suddenly in a document I was editing.  Maybe I did do an ALT+click accidentally, but that's not the point.  Misclicks happen.  The point is that there does not appear to be a way to turn the Research pane OFF.  It completely interferes with editing the document, rendering Word useless.  The answer above is NOT a resolution because as soon as you close the Pane and then click in the document the PAIN (pun intended) reappears.  Nor was the Community Moderator's comments below of any help whatsoever. 

    Note after I initially posted this response the most recent post from the Moderator appeared (was it on a second page?).

    To the first set of questions: 1) Yes it pops up if you just click in the document.  2) Highlighted some text to do a Format Painter.

    To the second set of questions: 1)  a laptop with the touchpad DISABLED (I am using a docking station with a mouse.  2)  I have never used the Research Pane, nor do I intend to, so I have never tried to reassign the shortcut for it.

    I did several ALT+Click's and the Research Pane finally went away and stayed away.

    Bad feature and terrible documentation, but my resolution worked for me.  I hate the thought of people having to muck around with VB to "fix" the problem with a bandaid, not a true fix.

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