When you attempt to close a document, Word will ask you if you want to save it first (see save file). This is a safety measure so that you do not accidentally close files without saving them. If you want to keep a file, you must save it before closing it.

Click on File

Click on Close

There is not normally an icon available on the toolbar for this function. The other way in which you can close a file is to use the buttons on the very top right of the screen. Notice that one set of buttons appears in the blue status bar. This is not the set of button that I am referring to (these buttons refer to the whole programme and that X will close the Word programme).

The buttons being referring to are the second row of buttons in the grey area. See the circle around the X that we are referring to (above). The second row of buttons refer to the document with which you are working. If you want to close the document, carefully click on that X in the second row.