I know that in the Tools / Options, go to the View tab and you can check "on"
the item "Startup Task Pane" but I don't believe it will open with your
styles window. I don't know if there's a way to force that to be open to
start with.

Good luck.
cbeck

"badger man" wrote:

I know how to change the basic format of may normal doc and then resave it so
i get the new setting ever time i start a new doc in word.

But, I have several custom formats for text which appear in my task pane /
formating box

I want the task pane to show up, toggled to "formating", when ever i open a
new (normal) doc in word

i tried to do this by opening the normal doc - then opened the task pane
window and then saved the normal doc. But when i started a new doc the task
pane was closed again

thanks