Opening a new instance of Word

[Joanne]

How do you prevent Word from opening a new instance of
the program each time you open a new document? (Word97).
We need to keep one instance of Word only but multiple
documents open. Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[debra]

Avoid opening documents from outside word, like Windows
Explorer. Only open documents from the File, Open menu.
This has been successful for me.