Can't toggle between word documents anymore

Question

Hello!

For some odd reason I'm no longer able to toggle between more than two open Word documents.. i.e., if I have, say, 5 Word documents open and hit the command and ` key together it will no longer switch between all of the open documents, only the last two.  This was working perfectly fine up until today.  I haven't knowingly updated anything, and I have restored all the default options to the keyboard (I never changed anything in the first place, but restored everything to default just in case).  Any assistance would be much appreciated!

Thank you for your time

Answer 1

Good!

Then it's quite likely to be a corrupt preferences file that's causing the problem. Just to confirm that, hold the Shift key while you launch Word from the Dock. Open a few documents & see if the keystroke works. If it does;

Quit Word

Go to UserName:Library:Preferences

Delete the file named: com.microsoft.Word.plist

Note: If you're using OS X 10.7/10.8 the user Library folder is Hidden. if you aren't familiar with getting to it see **this link**.

Hi again!

when I held down the Shift key while opening Word, then I was able to toggle back and forth between multiple files.  I then followed your instructions and deleted the com.microsoft.Word.plist file

When I went back to open Word again from the doc the regular way (without hitting shift) I can still only toggle between two open files.  However, if I open Word while holding down the Shift key then everything is fine again.

Is there way a to permanently fix it so that I don't need to remember to hold down Shift while opening Word?  Just curious :)

Thanks so much for your help!

Answer 2

Good!

Then it's quite likely to be a corrupt preferences file that's causing the problem. Just to confirm that, hold the Shift key while you launch Word from the Dock. Open a few documents & see if the keystroke works. If it does;

Quit Word

Go to UserName:Library:Preferences

Delete the file named: com.microsoft.Word.plist

Note: If you're using OS X 10.7/10.8 the user Library folder is Hidden. if you aren't familiar with getting to it see **this link**.

Answer 3

When is the last time you launched Word? Restarted your Mac?

Try both & see if either resolves it. If not, reply here for other possible fixes.

Answer 4

That's curious... the shift key technique is just a diagnostic tool which simply bypasses the preferences file.

Are you certain you had Quit Word before deleting that file? If not, Word doesn't create a new one, it just reconstructs the old one based on what is already in memory. If you're sure Word wasn't running, there might be something else at work behind the scenes. Do a little more testing;

Log out, then hold Shift while you log in. Launch Word in the normal fashion & see if the behavior persists.

Create a new User Account, launch Word there to see if you have the same problem. (See the info here if you aren't familiar with  Mac OS X: Setting Up User Accounts   -- may vary depending on your version of OS X.)

Answer 5

Hi!

I completely close all programs and shut down my computer every night.