If you frequently find yourself wanting to edit the same document you were using in your last Word session, you can create a shortcut which does just this, using a command-line switch.

If you're running a 64-bit version of Windows, notice the somewhat different path to the winword.exe file.
Here’s how:
- Right-click an empty spot on your desktop and choose New -> Shortcut from the pop-up menu.
- Click the Browse button and locate the winword.exe program. If you installed Word in the default folder and you’re using Word 2003, you’ll find it in:
- Click winword.exe when you locate it and then click Open. Windows will automatically fill the location box with the full pathname surrounded by quotation marks.
- Click within the location box and, after the closing quotation marks, add a space followed by /mfile1, then click Next.
- Give your shortcut a name, such as Last Word, and click Finish.
- If you like, drag your newly created shortcut onto the Quick Launch bar to the right of the Start button to make it easier to use.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11
If you’re using Word 2007, it’s in:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12
Put them somewhere handy
I like to place both shortcuts side by side in the Quick Launch bar: the normal Word shortcut and my Last Word shortcut. That way, I can choose whether to launch Word with a blank document or with the last-edited document pre-loaded. I distinguish between the two by altering the icon for the Last Word shortcut:
- Right-click the Last Word shortcut and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
- On the Shortcut tab, click Change Icon.
- Click one of the alternative icons and click OK.
Almost the same thing with a macro
Note that it’s also possible to open the last-edited document using a macro, but this method has the drawback of making Word always launch with that document loaded. If that’s what you want to do, here’s how to create the macro:
- Press Alt+F8 to display the Macros dialog.
- Type AutoExec in the Macro Name box and click Create. The Visual Basic Editor will load.
- In the code window on the right, you’ll see that Word has automatically created a code stub for the AutoExec macro. Between the Sub AutoExec() and End Sub statements, on a line by itself, type:
- Close the Visual Basic editor.
RecentFiles(1).Open
The commands you stick in a macro named AutoExec run automatically whenever you launch Microsoft Word, so creating this AutoExec macro will open the most recently edited document every time you launch Word.