So.. to fire up the fitz-translation software again and clarify for everyone:
Basically, what FBD wants is that regardless of however many word documents he opens concurrently, he only wants one word icon to show up on his taskbar (different than grouping multiple word icons as KCNY suggested as it is still grouping multiple icons - he wants only the one icon to be there total).
It is the difference between the SDI (Single Document Interface) and MDI (multiple document interface). SDI which Microsoft has been using since Word 97 or so has each document occupy it's own window as opposed to MDI where multiple documents share a single window. FBD wants to revert back to the MDI interface..
edit: FBD, they won't show up as "tabs" per-se in word, but you can switch between documents in the same interface by going to the "view" ribbon where there should be an option to switch windows. Or, once the setting is setup correctly, you can do as Saz mentions and minimize just the document within the window.
So.. all that said..
here is how to switch back to MDI.
(or for those that don't want to follow the link, the short cheat-sheet version)
Microsoft Office Word 2007
1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, click Word Options, and then click Advanced.
2. Under Display, click to select (or click to clear) the Show all windows in the Taskbar check box.
3. Click OK
Microsoft Office Word 2003 and earlier versions of Word
1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the View tab, click to select (or click to clear) the Windows in Taskbar check box, and then click OK.
edit: BTW - regardless of if you use MDI or SDI, office still only uses one winword process. Even in the SDI interface, it may look like you have multiple instances of Word running because it shows multiple icons on the task bar, but there is only one running winword.exe process.
edit2:
Why do you not minimize the word document you are using within Word (use the document specific min/max/close buttons instead of the application specific min/max/close buttons) and have another document opened in the instance of Word?
That's how I've done things previously.
You simply minimize your current document, not the application and open the next one up and you're good to go. The previous document resides in the background of the same instance of the application.
Saz, this is only possible after making the change listed in the KB article. If you don't uncheck the option, the ability to minimize within the window is not there by default as the SDI interface only allows one document per window, there would be nothing to minimize but the whole window(note: an upgrade from previous versions of Office that already had this option set should carry the setting over to the new version if an upgrade was performed).