NEW: How to Toggle Thesaurus Pane On and Off in Microsoft Word

Issue:

Shift + F7 opens Thesaurus Tool pane in Microsoft Word. But Shift + F7 does NOT close the pane by default and you are forced to lift your hand from the keyboard and use the mouse to close it.

2013 Solution:

The coded Macro solution here.

This solution, however, only works in the first instance of Word where the macro is instantiated, but breaks in other simultaneous instances of Word.

2016 Solution:

This solution uses a recorded keyboard macro to close the Microsoft Word Thesaurus pane.

Steps:
1. Open the Thesaurus.
2. Record new macro: [Alt-W, M, R] or View > Macros > Record.
3. Name macro something like CloseThesaurus_[ShiftF8].
4. Assign macro to Keyboard.
5. Assign new shortcut key [shift-F8] to this macro (hijacking it from the MSWord assignment).
6. Close Thesaurus (using mouse).
7. [Alt-W, M, R] to stop the recording.


This process works for closing Thesaurus pane, but may not work for closing other task panes.

Thanks to user BarbSevy on Microsoft forums for bringing this solution to light.

[Original post]

Travis Hiland

How to Toggle Thesaurus On and Off in Microsoft Word

UPDATE 2018-09-19: The macro solution below seems to work only during the first instance of Word running the macro. It breaks when attempting to execute the macro in other instances of Word.

[See new solution using Recorded Keyboard Macros]

Issue:
Shift + F7 opens Thesaurus Tool pane in Microsoft Word. But Shift + F7 does NOT close the pane by default and you are forced to lift your hand from the keyboard and use the mouse to close it.

A million thanks to DharmaTurtleSC on Reddit for this quick and easy solution to an obvious oversight by Microsoft.

[Original Reddit Post]
[Travis Hiland]

Step 1: http://i.imgur.com/4Zfojo6.png

Click View > Macros. Enter anything as the name. 

Click Create. Paste this code:

Sub ThesaurusToggle()
On Error GoTo OpenT
CommandBars("Thesaurus").Visible = Not (CommandBars("Thesaurus").Visible)
GoTo EndIt
OpenT:
Application.Run MacroName:="Thesaurus"
EndIt:
End Sub

Close the window.

---

Step 2: http://i.imgur.com/xEIILAZ.png

Click File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Keyboard Shortcuts: Customize. 

Scroll to the bottom, click Macros > Thesaurus Toggle > Hit "Shift+F7" in the box > Assign > Close > OK.

That's it!

Step 1:

Step 2:

[Travis Hiland]