Turning on/off Word's Task Pane

If you don’t use the Word task pane and would like to reclaim the screen space for the document area, it can easily be turned off. Simply click on the X in the top right corner of the pane. If you uncheck the box beside Show at startup at the bottom of the pane, it won’t appear every time you start Word.

If you later decide to turn it back on, simply click on the View menu and select Task pane. The task pane will appear, but will not appear every time you start Word unless you re-check the box beside Show at startup.

The Task pane can also be controlled from the Options dialog box:

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Click on the View tab
3. Under the Show section check the Startup Task Pane to display it every time Word starts; deselect it if you do not want it to appear when Word starts
4. Click OK

You can always show or hide the Task Pane simply by pressing the Ctrl + F1 shortcut key