Mac Word docs ALWAYS open in full screen instead of the half size saved when closing a document?

Question

why must Mac Word docs ALWAYS open in full screen instead of the half size saved when closing a document?

driving me CRAZYYYYYYYY having to resize EVERY time. Please help.

Answer 1

I am a Windows user. This is a user-to-user support forum. A Mac user should be with you soon. People here cannot answer the "why" as to design questions but can help you work around things that are causing you problems.

To get the best help, please edit your question or add a comment to it telling us which Mac OS you are using (name and number) and which version of Word/Office you are using.

MVP Jay Freedman provided a free Add-In for this that works on Windows systems. I do not know that it will help you on a Mac, though. https://jay-freedman.info/

It is found in the file SaveViewMultiLoc.zip on his downloads page. Instructions are on the download page.

Answer 2

Hi randy singer

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum.

I understand how inconvenient this can be, especially when you have to resize the Word window every time you open a document. 

Based on my research, I’ve seen several other users report the same behavior on Word for Mac. In the meantime, you might consider trying the following steps to see if they help: 

-Exit full-screen mode before quitting Word by pressing Control + Command + F, then reopen the app. 

-Resize the window while Word is open, close all documents while keeping Word running, then quit and reopen Word. This may help Word remember your preferred window size. 

-Reset Word’s preferences by removing the com.microsoft.Word.plist file: Go to Finder > Go > Go to Folder > enter ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/, then move com.microsoft.Word.plist to the Desktop. 

-Go to System Settings > Desktop & Dock, enable “Close windows when quitting an application”, and ensure that “Prefer tabs when opening documents” is not set to Full Screen. 

If the issue still persists, please let me know which macOS version and Word version you’re currently using so I can assist you further. 

I hope this helps. Please feel free to let me know how it goes. 

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Answer 3

I'm not able to reproduce this issue in Word 16.103.3 (25113013). If I set a Word file to 100% with a window that is about half the screen width, then close the file and create a new file, the new file is 100% at about half the screen width, as expected.

Try creating a new user account (System Settings>Users & Groups), signing in to that, then testing if the problem still exists. If it goes away, it's an issue with the user profile part of your Office installation.

If the issue still exists, or you'd rather not move your user data to a new profile, try uninstalling Office following these steps: Uninstall Office for Mac Then reinstall from the Subscriptions page of your Microsoft account.

Answer 4

This most likely is a matter of macOS and/or Office needing to be updated. If you provide the current Version Numbers of both that can be confirmed for you.

Under normal circumstances macOS will not open a document file in Full Screen [or Focus] Mode.