Where are you running the macro from that creates the document?

If you run it from Word, then you are going to have an empty Word window, or the document present that you are running it from.

As for the progress indicator, you can show the form modeless and it will remain displayed while stuff happens, but you are going to have to provide updates to that display in order for the bar to change.

You can download a progress bar userform from the link, and use the following code to update it.

Option Explicit
Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)

Sub Macro1()
Dim oFrm As frmProgress
Dim PartDone As Double
Dim i As Long
Set oFrm = New frmProgress
oFrm.Show vbModeless
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Below is the part that reflects the updating of the form - here a simple loop
For i = 1 To 10
Sleep 1000 ' a one second delay
PartDone = i / 10


oFrm.lblProgress.Width = oFrm.fmeProgress.Width * PartDone
oFrm.Caption = "Processing item " & i & " of " & 10
DoEvents
Next i
Unload oFrm
End Sub

Hello Graham,
I came across your post here which was very valuable for my project. Thank you. I did try the link to download but I kept getting a 404 error. Wasn't a deal breaker for me because I managed to create a Progress Bar version based on the additional code you had also posted in the same thread. Just wondered if you knew the link wasn't working? or maybe it's at my end?

Secondly, when I call my Progress Bar to display from Document_Open, it seems to run after Word has finished loading all other attributes of the document (i.e. ActiveX Controls, Shapes & Images, etc). I've tried calling it from Document_Open located in ThisDocument and also AutoOpen from a standard Module. My document takes perhaps 10 - 15 secs to open so I was hoping to display the Progress Bar at this time; Progress Bar is updated simply based on time interval as per your example. I'm currently using Word 2016 - if that matters?

Thirdly, I had to change Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) to Private Declare PtrSafe Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) as I'm running a 64 bit system. Is there a way to use VBA to check whether 32 or 64 bit?

I'm still reasonably new to using these forums so I hope this isn't out of line & is is OK to ask?

Kind regards, Corin.