Word for Mac resizes my document windows to fill most of screen and also makes it difficult to scroll throughout the document.

Tim Kosub 0 Reputation points
2025-12-08T22:15:38.2633333+00:00

My documents in Word for Mac (16.103.3) constantly expand to fill most of the screen, preventing me from comparing documents side by side without constantly resizing the documents. Another recent issue is that, when scrolling up or down through moderately lengthy documents, I can't go past mid point without being returned to the place I started at. Both of these problems cost me considerable time lost. Please help. (I have tried many of the online suggestions for dealing with this.)

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For education | MacOS
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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 429.9K Reputation points
    2025-12-09T16:21:27.2466667+00:00

    Windowing is a function of the operating system. In Mac Word opening a document when no others are open, the document will assume the size & position when it was last used. If other documents are open a new/reopened document will assume the size of the first & be offset from it

    For comparison purposes, investigate the options in Window> Move & Resize in the menu bar. If you aren't familiar with it there is a Combine Documents feature available in the Tools menu as well as on the Review tab of the Ribbon.

    As for navigation in long documents, scrolling often is problematic because each character has to be redrawn page after page. The process is severely hampered by complex document structure & graphic content. Other methods which are far more efficient are:

    • Working in Draft or Outline View rather than Print Layout View
    • Using the Navigation Pane or Thumbnails Pane in the Sidebar
    • The Go To feature in the Edit> Find menu [Option+Command+G]
    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Dora-T 8,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-12-09T03:37:04.1266667+00:00

    Hi Tim Kosub

    Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum. 

    I understand how inconvenient it can be when the document window resizes unexpectedly and the scrolling returns to the previous position, and I appreciate your patience and the effort you’ve put into trying to resolve this. 

    I tested this on my side using Word for Mac version 16.103.1, and it worked as expected. To better understand your issue, could you please share a bit more information? 

    -Which macOS version are you currently using? 

    -Did you install Word from the Mac App Store or directly from Microsoft’s website? 

    -Could you share which troubleshooting steps you have already tried? 

    -May I know whether you have already tried reinstalling Word? If not, I would recommend giving it a try to see if it can help resolve the issue. You might consider uninstalling Word and then reinstalling an earlier build such as 16.102 or 16.103.1 using the steps below: 

    +Open any Office app > Help > Check for Updates > clear the checkbox for “Automatically keep Microsoft Apps up to date.”  

    +Quit all Office apps.   

    +Go to Applications > choose Microsoft Word > Move to Trash.  

    +Install a previous version from this link: Update history for Office for Mac - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn  

    +After installation, reopen Word and confirm the version under Word > About Word.  

    Please understand that our initial reply may not always immediately resolve the issue. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution. 

    I look forward to your response. 


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