Originally Posted by Octochimp

this took way too long to figure out, but it is remarkably simple in hindsight, so here it is

in VBA in the main ThisDocument page put :

Option Explicit
Private Sub Document_Open()
CheckTime
End Sub

then, add a module, containing the following :

Option Explicit
Dim PreviousContent As String
Sub CheckTime()
PreviousContent = ActiveDocument.Content
Application.OnTime When:=Now + TimeValue("00:10:00"), _
Name:="DoCompare"
End Sub
Sub DoCompare()
If ActiveDocument.Content = PreviousContent Then
'if no changes after 10 minutes, save then close the document
ActiveDocument.Save
ActiveDocument.Close
Else
CheckTime
End If
End Sub