A few steps to prevent Word from over-assisting you…

• Always show full menus
• Go to Tools - Customize - Options
• Check ‘Always show full menus’

• Disable Reading Layout
• Goto Tools - Options - General
• Uncheck ‘Allow starting in Reading Layout’

• Prevent Word documents from bloating up
• Goto Tools - Options - Save
• Uncheck ‘Allow fast saves’
• Uncheck ‘Allow background saves’

• Disable startup task pane
• Go to Tools - Options - View
• Uncheck ‘Startup Task Pane’

• Hide Office Clipboard (AcbControl does not work for me)
• Goto View - Task Pane - Clipboard
• Click Option
• Uncheck ‘Show Office Clipboard Automatically’
• Uncheck ‘Show Office Clipboard When Ctrl+C Pressed Twice”
• Uncheck ‘Show Office Clipboard Icon on Taskbar’
• Uncheck ‘Show Status Near Taskbar When Copying’
• Check ‘Collect Without Showing Office Clipboard’

• Prevent Normal style (or any other style) from getting “automatically updated”
• Goto Format - Styles and Formatting
• Click on Normal (on the combo option) - Modify
• Uncheck “Automatically Update”
• You may need to do this for individual documents