Getting rid of track changes view in new document

[BMI]

When I open a document, the document view which always appears has a gray
column on the right side of the page. In order to get rid of this view, I
must go to "REVIEW" click on "Final" and then click on "Final." Is there a
way to set my Word program to always open my documents in the Final view? I
do not want the gray column to appear. Thanks!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Does the document actually contain tracked changes? If so, then this is a
safety/privacy protection feature that can't be turned off in the most
recent versions of Word. Reason: many users were editing and sending out
files that they did not know contained tracked changes (and some of the
hidden comments/deletions were downright embarrassing). As a result of many
many complaints, Word was modified so that it always shows the tracked
changes when a document is opened, regardless of whether they were displayed
when the document was last closed.

 

[Arlene]

This just happened to me too unexpectedly and it also printed that way.
Thanks for the answer on this--saves me some research.

Arlene