How do I prevent the panel, on left side of a word doc from view

[jerry joe king]

When I open a word doc., on the left side of screen there is a white
window/page with the number 1 along side it. I can close this panel by
dragging it to the left which only works for the present doc. I would like to
permanently hide this annoying panel, I really do not know what purpose it
serves. Thank you in advance for your help. Using Windows XP. Office 2003.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Hard to tell from your description--might be Document Map or Thumbnails.
Both can be toggled from the View menu. To turn them off permanently, you
may need to do so in Normal.dot; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/SaveViewAndZoom.htm

When I open a word doc., on the left side of screen there is a white
window/page with the number 1 along side it. I can close this panel by
dragging it to the left which only works for the present doc. I would like to
permanently hide this annoying panel, I really do not know what purpose it
serves. Thank you in advance for your help. Using Windows XP. Office

2003.