How do I stop the Task Pane from opening when I select New?

[Meg_07]

Hi,

Our organisation is planning a move from Office 97 to Office 2003. The
existing File > New (Word 97) function immediately opens the "New" window.

In Word 2003, we have set "Workgroup Templates" to the template path,
however the Task Pane opens when we do a File > New, & "My Computer" has to
be selected in order to view the "New" window.

The added step will cause problems to users when we deploy. No amount of
training will prevent this.

The only option we have is to prevent the Task Pane from opening when File >
New is selected, and to go straight to the "New" window.

Can anyone tell me if this is possible, and if so, how do we achieve this?

Thanks!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Replace the New... command on the File menu with the FileNewDialog command
from Tools | Customize. Since I never use the New button on the Standard
toolbar to create a new Blank Document, I have replaced it with a
FileNewDialog button to access the File New dialog directly.

 

[Meg_07]

Thanks Suzanne, that is exactly what we needed.

Replace the New... command on the File menu with the FileNewDialog command
from Tools | Customize. Since I never use the New button on the Standard
toolbar to create a new Blank Document, I have replaced it with a
FileNewDialog button to access the File New dialog directly.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Glad I could help.

 

[AlisonJS]

I have tried to use Prism deploy to take a snapshot and work out how to
automate this menu change so I can deploy it to all users automatically. None
of my snapshots seem to catch the registry change.

Do you have any idea how I can isolate the registry change and then deploy it?

Many thanks - Alison