Why, in Word 2007 does the program close if there's no document?

[bean]

In 2003 and in Excel (2007) you can minimize the program without having a
document/blank page open. There is a second, smaller x in the top right
corner of the screen to facilitate this. In Word 2007 the entire application
closes if you don't have a document or blank page open. There is no second,
smaller x top right.

 

[Aeneas]

Doing the following will provide a second Close button for closing the
document, below the one that closes Word but beware that if you have more
than one document open, you will only see the active document in the taskbar
and you will display a document button (unnamed) to the immediate right of
the Office Button that you can click to display a menu that includes
Restore, Minimize and Close (active document only), which when clicked with
only one document open, closes that document but not Word.

To display a second Close button, do the following:
Click the Office Button to display the Office menu
Click Word Options to display the Word Options dialog box and click Advanced
to display the advances options
Under Display, clear the Show all windows in the taskbar check box
To switch among open documents, either click the View tab and, in the Window
group, click Switch Windows or press CTRL+F6 (next document window or
CTRL+SHIFT+F6 (previous document window)

If you don’t like what comes with adding the document Close button but want
to close the last or only document open without closing Word, you have many
choices:
Click the Office Button to display the Office menu and click Close
Or
Press CTRL+W
Or
Press CTRL+F4

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In addition, you can add a Close button to the QAT. That's a no-brainer for
me since I've been using a Close button on the Standard toolbar (instead of
the X) for many versions now.