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Word: How do you close window without quitting the app?

Anonymous
2020-12-14T06:25:22+00:00

I work on a Mac 99% of the time. 

If I'm working on a Word document, then get a call to work on a different project. Sure thing. I hit the red button and the document closes, but WONDER OF WONDERS, THE APP STILL RUNS.

Fast foward to needing to work on a PC because Microsofts SharePoint likes to overheat my suped-up, top of the line Mac...and tries to sync 500GB of data that I've told it NOT to sync...and the only way to get it to stop is to hit the "Do Not Sync" button, restart the computer. Rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat. Do that about 5 times and it will eventually realize that oh, you don't want to dump that 500 GB onto your hard drive.

But I digress.

Now I'm on a PC. I open a Word doc on said PC, but again get a call to work on a different project. Sure thing. I hit the button, the document closes AND THE APP QUITS.

I wasn't done with the app.

If I was done with the app, I would have "Quit" the app instead of closing a document window. 

So because the PC has the speed of a turtle in reverse, I have to wait several minutes for Word to relaunch to make a 2 second change.

So, after fighting with this for 3 hours of torturous work (that should have taken me maybe an hour), I've still not found a way to close a window on the PC that doesn't also close the app. Someone tell me that after complaining about this 10 years ago, they've come up with a solution.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Stefan Blom 341.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2020-12-14T18:53:54+00:00

On a PC, Ctrl+F4 (or Ctrl+W) closes a document window, but it does not close the application window. One document window at a time will be closed when you press the keys. When you close the last window, the program will be left running with no document open.

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-14T08:06:37+00:00

    Add the Close File Command to the Quick Access Toolbar and use that to close the active document.

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  2. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-14T13:03:57+00:00

    This doesn't close the document but just minimizes it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-12-14T07:59:08+00:00

    Hi BrooksAkula,

    Thanks for posting in our community.

    Because of the different ways the system works, when you click X on PC, Word app will be closed, but on Mac it just closes the window.

    If you just want to close the window, you can try to minimize the Word.

    Then Word will work in the background instead of been closed and you can open it from taskbar, it just like click X on Mac.

    Hope this suggestion could help you.

    Regards,

    Jason

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