You should be able to toggle the Task Pane permenantly on or off

[Guest]

It would be very useful if you could toggle the Task Pane so that it always
staye on or off. If you have a document open with the Task Pane on and you
decide to open another, or create a new, document the Task Pane disappears in
all documents. You then need to go into the View menu and reselect the Task
Pane to be displayed.

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[Jay Freedman]

It would be very useful if you could toggle the Task Pane so that it always
staye on or off. If you have a document open with the Task Pane on and you
decide to open another, or create a new, document the Task Pane disappears in
all documents. You then need to go into the View menu and reselect the Task
Pane to be displayed.

See http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/ShowTaskPane.htm