I recently had a question about the window control buttons (Minimize, Restore, Close) that seem to be missing in Word 2010 documents. In truth, I never really paid much attention to their absence. I thought it was too easy to accidently hit the Close application button by mistake, so I never got into the habit of working with them. While it’s not really obvious what setting to change, you can display the buttons if you like using them.
- On the File tab, click Options.
- Click the Advanced button and scroll down to the Display group.
- Uncheck Show all windows in the Taskbar.
- Click OK. The window control buttons will display in the document.
Now, if you want, you can use the Arrange All command on the View tab to stack your open documents in the Word window. You don’t have a choice about how they’re arranged.
There are some tradeoffs. By default each Word document displays in its own Word window, with its own ribbon. What this means in Windows 7 is that when you mouse over the Word button in your Taskbar, you see (pretty big) thumbnails of the open Word documents, along with their titles. Then you can select the document you want.
When you uncheck the default, all documents are in a single window, so you can’t select a different document from the Taskbar. Also, if you’re accustomed to using Alt+Tab to switch to different documents, that won’t work either (as I said, all of your documents are now in a single window).
As for me, I prefer having the individual windows open. I just add a couple of commands to the Quick Access Toolbar. I add the Close command from the File tab, and the Switch Windows command from the View tab.
Learn more about our Word 2010 training. Get the latest tips, tutorials, and news about our classes by email! Click here to sign up for our newsletter!
THe show all windows task bar selection box is greyed out
January 20th, 2012 at 5:06 am
Your comments have been helpful, and correct.
However, unlike Word, in MS Excel 2010, even with that flag checked, multiple files are shown in the Taskbar. The close option up in top rh corner comes up automatically.
May 8th, 2012 at 7:10 pm
Just to clarify my earlier comment.
In Excel, if the display flag is UNchecked, there is only one window in the Task bar, but the close option up in top rh corner still comes up automatically.
Seems to be a fundamental difference between Word & Excel?
May 8th, 2012 at 7:45 pm
The option is greyed out because you do not have a document open.
June 14th, 2012 at 9:38 am
In subsequent communication with Microsoft, they have acknowledged that there is a difference between how files are handled in Windows 7 Word 2010, compared with Xcel 2010. [Both these were the same in Windows XP/Office 2003.]
They indicate that based on user feedback & comment, they may bring Word into line with Excel!
June 22nd, 2012 at 4:47 pm
Since I was used to being able to close a Word document using the button, I have been very frustrated while using the new version. However, your helpful advice on how to restore the button has helped tremendously. Thank you!!!
October 5th, 2012 at 5:49 pm