How to Use Multiple, Arranged, or Split Windows in Microsoft Office/365

If you use Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 a lot, chances are you have come across situations where you would like to work with more than one document at a time.

Simply opening a new document window is a great thing to know for these situations, but fine-tuning this skill can open an entirely new and upgraded work experience.

Here is how you can go one step further, by customizing how multiple windows align, scroll, and even coordinate. Please keep in mind that not all Office programs have the same range of features, but these will give you a good overview of what to look for. In general, you will find the most window customizations in Microsoft Word and Excel.

How to Multitask in Microsoft Apps

1. To create a new window, simply select View - New Window. This creates a new frame for the program. For example, if you are working in Microsoft Word, you would see the entire user interface in two separate instances on your screen.

2. Adjust each window to see what you need to. You can use either the Restore/Expand feature in the upper right of each window or use your mouse to click on the borders then drag each window to your preferred width or height.

3. Again, the new window behaves just like your original window, meaning you can save the document, apply formatting, and apply other tools to each window.

Tips

• If you have two documents, select View - View Side by Side. This is also a quick way to snap each window back to equal screen space after you have customized a window's width or height.
• If you have a bunch of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or other documents open, you can also arrange all files in the same program by selecting View - Arrange Windows. It will snap the windows to a smaller size so you can see them all, depending on how many you are working with.
• Keep in mind that you should use multiple windows when comparing two different documents. If you try to open the same document in two different windows, you can create issues when saving any changes, or you may run into stability issues. Instead, check out an alternative approach in the next tip
• You can also split a screen within the same document, which lets you compare nonadjacent parts of a document on the same screen. Select View - Split Screen. It allows you to compare the first page to a page later in the document, for example, while avoiding version issues, because you are still working on just one instance of that document. It is available in Microsoft Word and can help with larger documents.

You may also be interested in Views, which give you a way to customize your experience in Microsoft programs. Views are alternative ways of looking at one document window. In that sense, they are more like getting a new perspective or getting higher or lower detail than the default View. Another option is to adjust how large text is within a single window.