Author: Martin

Microsoft Word Startup Parameters

Did you know that all editions of Microsoft Word support several startup parameters that can be helpful in more than one occasion? The easiest way to start Word with parameters would be to create a shortcut of the winword.exe, right-click the shortcut and select Properties from the menu and append the switches at the end of the Target line.

It is possible to use the command line instead and append the switches behind the Word executable. It would look like the following Path to Word/winword.exe \switch. I will not comment on all command line switches available, only on those that I find useful enough to be included in the list.

Here is a tip that I found useful. If you use a switch that calls a file with spaces put that file in “”, for example “Ghacks Technology News”.

/safe – start Word in safe mode
/q – disable the Word splash screen
/ttemplatename – start Word with a different template. For example /tc:\template.dotx
/t filename – load a filename in Word. For example /t c:\template.dotx
/a – start Word without loading add-ins and templates
/m – start Word without any autostarting macros.
/mmacroname – start Word and a specific macro.
/r – register Word in the Windows Registry again