I found this to work for various versions, up to the latest version of Word. But please note that this will affect ALL Office applications, not only Word!
I'm actually copying & adapting from this page on askvg.com .
If you don't feel to edit the registry yourself, you can download the necessary automatic script from that link. Otherwise, take the following steps:
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Close any office application.
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Press "WIN+R" key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type regedit and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor and go to following key:
For Office 2013:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common
For Office 2016, 2019 & 365:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common
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Check if there is a key "Graphics" existing. If not, right-click on Common key and select New -> Key option. It'll create a new key, set its name as Graphics
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Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD DisableAnimations and set its value to 1
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Close Registry Editor and open any Office application. Changes are instant: no more animations and effects.
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If you want to restore default animations, change value of DisableAnimations to 0 or simply delete the DWORD.
