How to Navigate the Start Screen in Word 2016

Word 2010 For Dummies

After starting Word 2016, the first thing you may see is something called the Word Start screen, as shown here. It's friendlier than that ominous empty page that's intimidated writers since the dawn of paper. (The blank page comes later.)

The Word Start screen.

You can use the Start screen to open a previously opened document, start a new document based on a template, or start with a blank document.

Previously opened documents are listed on the left side of the window, as illustrated. Word's templates are found under the heading Featured. Templates you've created appear under the Personal link. Click a template thumbnail to create a new document based on that template.

To start on a blank document, click the Blank Document template. Then you see the ominous empty page.

Once you've made your choice, Word is ready for you to start writing. Word is also equally content if you just stare at the screen and await inspiration.

The Word Start screen doesn't appear if you start Word by opening a document.
You can also disable the Start screen so that Word starts with a blank document.

The Word Start screen appears only when you first start Word. It does not appear if you start a new document while the Word program window is already open.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.