# MS Word tabs **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247 "2003-02-02T05:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/1 "2003-02-02T05:03:30Z")
Back in the good old days of Windows 98 and Word 97, you could have as many documents open as you wanted… and it only shows up as one item on the taskbar. That was how I liked it. It’s annoyed me since 2000 that the later versions of Word will all slap down a new taskbar item for every document you have open. Now I got Windows XP, with Word 02, and I had high hopes that MS finally realized how annoying that can get and make it easy to keep your number of MS Word tabs down to one no matter what. No such luck. (suppose this is something that people at Microsoft use to make a passing boss think they’re busy as all get out?) There are bigger problems in the world, but if I can solve this one I will be more efficiently able to solve the other ones. Anybody know how to do this? _Can_ I do this? ---
**Author:** ![jujuju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@jujuju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jujuju)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/2 "2003-02-02T05:35:53Z")
i don’t think you can do it. another thing i wish: if you are gonna have all those tabs down there, it would be nice to be able to rearrange them. expecially when explorer or excel crash and you have to reopen the files you’ve been working on for the last 10 hours in a different order (unless you close ALL the files down…) ---
**Author:** ![mazzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@mazzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazzer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/3 "2003-02-02T06:22:31Z")
I once was driven to madness by just the same thing. I can’t find it at the moment, but there was available for download a patch that would “fix” it. It worked, and I had it installed for awhile. It was, however, a tad buggy, and eventually it I uninstalled it. I forget the name. I know this is not very helpful, but just to let you know there is recourse. Google, my friend, with wise search terms. ---
**Author:** ![mazzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@mazzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazzer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/4 "2003-02-02T06:26:22Z")
Just to let you know, the “patch” was not from Microsoft. It basically involved, I believe, swapping out your Normal.dot and doing one other thing I can’t remember (i.e., not for the faint of heart). It was 100% reversible and was basically a clever VB hack. The “bugs” were minor and not at all harmful to one’s system–just little quirks that made my Word act funny. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/5 "2003-02-02T06:33:22Z")
One could easily dispense with this annoyance (and many others) by using a far superior wrod processor: WordPerfect. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/6 "2003-02-02T06:41:08Z")
For example, had I been using WordPerfect, I would have been alerted to the fact that “wrod” doesn’t mean anything. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/7 "2003-02-02T06:45:32Z")
There is an option for this… Tools - Options - View (tab) - Show (grouping) - Uncheck “Windows in Taskbar” Since you have XP, you could also try grouping similar taskbar items if you dislike having so many windows open: start - settings - taskbar and start menu - taskbar (tab) - check “Group Similar taskbar buttons” As they say in the #windows help channel on IRC “rtfm” 😉 hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Jberto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@Jberto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jberto)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/8 "2003-02-02T06:57:00Z")
Here’s what Microsoft has to say: “If you prefer to see only a single window and a single button on the Windows taskbar [for Microsoft Word 2002 documents]…you can clear the **Windows in Taskbar** check box on the **View** tab of the **Options** dialog box (on the **Tools** menu, click **Options** ). Note: This check box is not available if you use Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0.” The full document can be found at [http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2002/articles/wdKeepTrackOfOpenDocs.aspx](http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2002/articles/wdKeepTrackOfOpenDocs.aspx) As far as I know, this doesn’t apply to previous Office versions (I have yet to find this setting in Office 2000). Let me know if this works for you. ---
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-tabs/152247/9 "2003-02-02T07:23:51Z")
Thanks, Jberto and Zipper33… it does work! That’s gonna make the part of my life I spend with a word processer (too much) a heck of a lot better. This patch… it’s only _intended_ effect getting rid of the multiple buttons?