If you use the Navigation Pane only for searching, then this works for me, hopefully for you too:
1. By default, Ctrl+F should be set to "SmartFind" (that's the command name) in Word.
2. Go to View tab, and in the Show section uncheck the option Navigation Pane.
3. Now your documents will open without the navigation pane but every time you press Ctrl+F navigation pane will open and go automatically to Results (with the cursor in place).
amadís