While some suggestions seem to work with others, it did not solve my
problem. The task pane in Word 2003 came back as soon as I hit File
New.
Things that worked for others, but not for me:
Microsoft article 838676 describes it plain and simple
SYMPTOMS
Every time that you start Microsoft Office Word 2003, the Getting
Started task pane appears.
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RESOLUTION
There are two solutions to this problem.
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Solution 1
1. Quit all Microsoft Word programs that are running including
WordMail.
2. Start Word 2003.
3. On the Tools menu, click Options.
4. On the View tab, click to clear the Startup Task Pane check box.
5. Quit Word 2003.
When you start Word 2003 the next time, the task pane should not
appear. If it does, go to Solution 2.
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Solution 2
Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious
problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system.
Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from
using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own
risk.
1. Quit Word 2003. If you use Word as your e-mail editor, also quit
Microsoft Outlook.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Run box, type REGEDIT, and then click OK.
4. Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General
5. Right-click the DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane key, and then click
Delete.
6. Click OK to confirm that you want to delete the
DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane key.
When you start Word the next time, Word will respect the task pane
setting. If the task pane is still appearing, follow the steps in
Solution 1 to make sure that the setting is turned off in the user
interface.
The following registry value corresponds to this setting:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options
Value Name: StartupDialog
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0x00000000 (0)
HOWEVER that has not worked for me. As soon as I clicked File New, the
pain was there again.
Instead I tried the following:
Select Tools, Macro, Macros (or press F8)
Type 'FileNew' as the macro filename
Choose 'Create'
That's it. The next time you use File New, the task pain will not
appear.
BTW: task pain was not a typo
)
