Cannot close document without closing Word

[Blue Max]

How come we cannot close the last open Word 2007 document without closing
Word? How come Word 2007 does not have a button to close the document
versus the program?

For example, in Excel 2007, we can close the last open Excel worksheet and
Excel remains open so that we can then open another worksheet. This is
because Excel has buttons to separately close either the worksheet or the
program. This has been the traditional approach for most applications and
is a good one. We often desire to close a document without closing the
program. Why has Word 2007 departed from this convention and is there a way
to close the last document without closing the program?

 

[Gordon]

How come we cannot close the last open Word 2007 document without closing
Word? How come Word 2007 does not have a button to close the document
versus the program?

For example, in Excel 2007, we can close the last open Excel worksheet and
Excel remains open so that we can then open another worksheet. This is
because Excel has buttons to separately close either the worksheet or the
program. This has been the traditional approach for most applications and
is a good one. We often desire to close a document without closing the
program. Why has Word 2007 departed from this convention and is there a
way to close the last document without closing the program?

Office Button-Close will do what you want.

 

[CyberTaz]

Actually, you have several options:

1- Go into Word Options> Advanced - Display & remove the check on "Show all
windows in Task Bar". This is closest to the behavior you described, or

2- Use the Customize Options to add a Close button to the Quick Access
Toolbar, or

3- Use the Office Button's Close command, or

4- Use the Control+W keystroke.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Blue Max]

Thank you, Gordon. This was very helpful. You may also note the
suggestions here by CyberTaz, who provided a method of changing the Word
options so that it would function in a more traditional fashion - much like
we described in Excel.

Thanks,

Richard

*******************

 

[Blue Max]

Thanks, Bob, for a thorough set of alternatives. The Word Options >
Advanced feature did the trick. I wondered why Excel and Word were
functioning with different conventions, we must have inadvertantly changed
this option for one of the programs at some point in time. I am very
pleased that Microsoft has retained multiple options that can be selected by
the user.

Thanks,

Richard

*************************

 

[Terry Farrell]

And finally (IMHO the most useful of the lot as it is a command common
across a multitude of applications) is the close shortcut, Control+F4.

Note that the similar Alt+F4, Close/Exit command, closes just the active
document if more than one document is open, but closes the application if
only a single document is open.

Control+F4 never closes the application.

 

[CyberTaz]

<snip>
Control+F4 never closes the application.
<snip>

As is the case with Control+W [DocClose] - I just happen to like it better
than Control+F4 because it's not as much of a stretch for a one-handed
operation