Word Doesn't Open A Fiile in an Idle Window + Status Bar Disappears

Hi,
I am using Windows-10 Version 2004 (OS Build 19041-964) and Office-365.
Of late, I am having a couple of issues with Word.

In the past, when we close a word document, Word Application remains open, call this Idle Window.
When I open any Word document, it is used to be opened in the Idle Window.

But now, Word creates another Instance and opens this document in that Window, and irritatingly, the Idle Window is getting maximised.

And, most of the time status bar disappears.

Appreciate any suggestions to overcome these issues.

Regards, Saradhi.

This doesn't answer your question but it may be a work around: -

You state "In the past, when we close a word document, Word Application remains open, call this Idle Window" so instead of closing the document close the Word Application window instead.

It is a bug and not sure which update has caused this.

Of course, the current workaround is to close the Word Application.

But the downside is, each time you open a Word Document the system has to load the entire application again, and it obviously takes time.

Despite the huge memory on my PC, it takes considerable time to load.

Hope Microsoft will respond with a Bug-Fix.