When I open a word doc., on the left side of screen there is a white
window/page with the number 1 along side it. I can close this panel by
dragging it to the left which only works for the present doc. I would like to
permanently hide this annoying panel, I really do not know what purpose it
serves. Thank you in advance for your help. Using Windows XP. Office 2003.

Hard to tell from your description--might be Document Map or Thumbnails.
Both can be toggled from the View menu. To turn them off permanently, you
may need to do so in Normal.dot; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/SaveViewAndZoom.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"jerry joe king" jerry joe wrote in message
...
When I open a word doc., on the left side of screen there is a white
window/page with the number 1 along side it. I can close this panel by
dragging it to the left which only works for the present doc. I would like
to
permanently hide this annoying panel, I really do not know what purpose it
serves. Thank you in advance for your help. Using Windows XP. Office
2003.