Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Quickly Changing Document Windows.

Quickly Changing Document Windows

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 10, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you routinely use several open documents to do you work, you already know that you can change between document windows by choosing the document name from the Window menu. You may not know, however, that there is a shortcut for changing windows. You can cycle through your documents by pressing either Ctrl+F6 or Shift+Ctrl+F6. The difference is that Ctrl+F6 cycles through the list of windows in a forwards direction, while Shift+Ctrl+F6.

If you would rather not take your hands off the mouse, you can create a macro that cycles through the windows. This macro can then be assigned to a button on one of your toolbars. The following macro will cycle forwards through the windows:

Sub ChangeWin()
    On Error GoTo ChangeWinErr
    Set bb = ActiveWindow.Next
    If Windows.Count > 1 Then
        bb.Activate
        Exit Sub
    End If
    ChangeWinErr:
        Windows(1).Activate
End Sub

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (967) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Quickly Changing Document Windows.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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