# How do you permanently turn off the TaskPane in Office 2003?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-permanently-turn-off-the-taskpane-in-office-2003/555862>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 2, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-permanently-turn-off-the-taskpane-in-office-2003/555862 "2010-10-02T20:29:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-permanently-turn-off-the-taskpane-in-office-2003/555862/1 "2010-10-02T20:29:43Z")

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The TaskPane in Office 2003 wastes a lot of valuable screen space and is a pain in my backside.

I thought I could easily turn it off. Under View Toolbars, Customize, uncheck TaskPane.  
The classic fix is to open normal.dot, change whatever and save. I’ve been doing this since Office 97.

here’s the Microsoft instructions

> **[Word help & learning](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word?legRedir=true)**
>
> Get answers to all of your Microsoft Word questions. Find Word help, how-to articles, training videos, tutorials, and more.

The problem is Win7 has changed stuff. First, normal.dot is in a new location. I had to search to find it.

C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

Second, when you open normal.dot the View, Toolbars menu no longer shows TaskPane. Neither does Toolbars customize have Taskpane as an option to uncheck. 😕

I even tried saving normal.dot That blasted Taskpane still pops up when Word opens.

Back to Google… I found this microsoft answer…

> **[Support has ended for Office 2003 - Microsoft Support](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/support-has-ended-for-office-2003-c5118100-b738-4163-b7c1-b9c4fe5b6b90)**
>
> Support for Office 2003 ends on April 8, 2014. Read this article for more information about what this means.

I searched in RegEdit for DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane. It’s not found. I manually navigated to HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General. There’s no key that looks anything like DoNotDismiss. 😕

Man this is kicking my ass. I need to kill this TaskPane once and for all. I’m beginning to wonder if Win7 is to blame? Microsoft claims Office 2003 with SP3 is 100% compatible. But, is it really?

The only time I can get rid of Taskpane is if I open a saved document that had it turned off.

help! please.

Ace

> [@](#):
>
> 1. Quit Word 2003. If you use Word as your e-mail editor, also quit Microsoft Outlook.
> 2. Click Start, and then click Run.
> 3. In the Run box, type REGEDIT, and then click OK.
> 4. Locate the following registry key:  
> HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General
> 5. Right-click the DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane key, and then click Delete.
> 6. Click OK to confirm that you want to delete the DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane key.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-permanently-turn-off-the-taskpane-in-office-2003/555862/2 "2010-10-02T20:55:35Z")

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The Office Taskpane is now dead. 😃

I slayed the dragon. There’s a checkbox under Tools, Options, View.

So why is there a totally useless option under View,Toolbars, customize? :dubious:

I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. I love my job.

Did I mention how much I love spending 3 hours on a beautiful Fall Saturday fixing Microsoft’s software?

BTW You have to manually kill Taskpane in Excel and Publisher too.