How does "Arrange all" ordering work?

Question

I use "Arrange all" to tile open documents in my MS Word 2003 window.

Having opened those document in a certain order, 1, 2, 3, 4, say, I'm hoping they would be arranged accordingly, from top to bottom and left to right. But when I Arrange them all the order turns out to be

4

1

2,3

I'd appreciate if someone could explain the logic behind "Arrange all" ordering, and suggest a way to make it do the "right" thing, in this case

1

2

3,4

Or even better

1,2

3,4

Thanks

Answer 1

I was looking at that.

When I set focus on 1, then do Arrange All, 1 comes at the top and now I have a sequential ordering (1234) from top to bottom.

In general, whatever document I set focus on become first after rearranging, but, except for the case above, I loose the sequential ordering. So I'm still trying to figure out how this works.

Same with Ctrl-F6 to switch between documents.

Answer 2

What happens if after you open them, you view document 1, then do Arrange All?

Answer 3

Thank you for responding.

I should have mentioned I unchecked the "Windows in taskbar" option (in fact I may well have learned this from the very site your link points to).

To test your theory I opened and closed the files one by one, 1,2,3,4. Then I opened them and Arrange them all. But the order is still

4

1

2,3

I realize Word 2003 is no longer supported but I assumed the Arrange All ordering worked similarly in later versions, in which case the question would be of broader interest.

Answer 4

Someone else may be able to answer this, but please be patient. You are asking about software that was replaced in the market more than ten years ago and is no longer under support.

I still use and like Word 2003. You and I are not the only ones.

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that it has to do with the order in which they were examined or viewed last.

You may want to look into a third-party utility to open them in one Word Window with one set of toolbars and menus. I recall that there were such utilities but do not recall the name or location.

https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/microsoft-office/-open-multiple-word-2003-documents-in-one-window/