FYI: MDI= Multiple Document Interface, SDI=Single Document Interface. I.e., whether each open window is separate (SDI) or whether they’re “daughter” windows under a single Ribbon bar (MDI).
I’m currently taking some classes in which a prerequisite course is the fundamentals of Word and Excel, which I already know. So we’re going over the basics of Word, but to my surprise the printed handouts have screenshots showing MS Word 2010 with document control buttons indicating that it’s MDI. Since this is not in fact how my copy of Word 2010 is configured I was wondering how that happened, especially because everything I could Google on the subject insists that Word is not and never has been an MDI program* (as opposed to Excel, which is). I couldn’t find any such option on the File tab advanced settings. Is this something that can be done but only on installation or with a special configuration script?
*Technically, the operating system regards Word as an MDI, but doesn’t actually make that available to the shell. For example, you can close the file window leaving a grayed-out work area with the Ribbon and control buttons open.
P.S. evidently a lot of people love one interface and hate the other, so I’m surprised it’s not a configurable option.
Have you ever noticed that after struggling with a problem for days, the moment you ask someone else the answer jumps out of hiding? Five minutes after I entered the OP I finally found a link that explains how to do it:http://www.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/1111529434_281297.pdf
The trick is the File-Options-Advanced setting for “Show all windows in the Taskbar check box”- which, understandably, I thought merely referred to whether Taskbar icons were tiled or not.
