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How to change the default view in Word 2003?

Anonymous
2017-11-12T19:27:06+00:00

For Word 2003 on Windows 7.

I usually use Jarte but wanted to try Word 2003 again because it has a lot more features.  The problem is every time I open a document it opens in Normal View and I have to change something and save it in Web View for it to open in Web View next time.  I have hundreds, if not thousands of these files.  There must be a way of getting it to open in Web View by default.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Jay Freedman 207.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2017-11-12T22:44:02+00:00

There's no built-in option for this, but a simple macro can do it.

  • Open Word and open the macro editor (Tools > Macros > Visual Basic Editor, or Alt+F11).
  • In the Project panel on the left, open the icon for Normal, open the Microsoft Word Objects icon under it, and double-click the ThisDocument icon under that.
  • Copy the macro code from below, and paste it into the large empty area on the right.
  • Click File > Save, or Ctrl+S, to save the Normal.dot template.
  • Close the macro editor. All existing documents will now open in Web view.

Private Sub Document_Open()

    ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdWebView

End Sub

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Jay Freedman 207.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2017-11-13T18:22:55+00:00

When Word 2003 was designed, most documents really were printed, and Web view was a relatively new feature intended to help people build static web pages. The philosophy of Word's design has always been primarily "what you see is what you get".

In most versions of Word, the view that was in effect when a document was last saved is stored in the file, and would be restored on reopening the document. You may be astonished to hear that Word 2013 and 2016 abandoned that, and always reopen existing documents in Print Layout view. To restore the old behavior, I offer a free add-in at https://jay-freedman.info/SaveView2013.zip. However, it won't open a document in Web view if it was last saved in some other view -- and no version of Word will do that without the macro I gave you.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-11-13T21:10:48+00:00

    I see your point.  In 2003 life was different.  I was just surprised that they didn't add it in an update later on.  We've moved away from printing for so long now.  As for opening in the last view, that does make sense.  All my docs were created with Jarte and Word ignores Jarte's last view I guess.  Your macro works astoundingly well.  :)  Many thanks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-11-13T15:47:36+00:00

    Can you think of any logical reason why the designers decided not to implement an option for controlling the default view?  This is about the most fundamental aspect for a document one could imagine.  Who prints these days?  Maybe 1% of documents are probably printed.  Are they living in the last century?  How difficult could this be to add?  Or is it now available on later versions of Word?  

    Thank you for the macro solution.  I'll definitely use it. 

    After I finish changing the toner in my printer.  :)

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