On the Edit tab of Tools | Options, check the box for "Windows in Taskbar."
But note that you can still open more than one document at a time in your
current situation; they're just all in the same window. If you check the
Window menu, you'll see they're all there.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
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"Jon" wrote in message
...
There used to be a time when I could open multiple documents in Word. You
know the minimized versions in the bottom bar. Then I must have done
something wrong, and now I can only open one document at a time. Word
allows
for one minimized document in the bottom bar and that's it.