For me, I find this to be a huge PITA. Why oh why does Office 2004 (Word, Excel, and PP) feel the need to open a blank document when I click "Cancel" in the Project Gallery?! I don't want it to open anything for a reason! It used to behave properly, ie, it would just come up with the toolbars if I clicked cancel and no blank document. Somewhere something has changed but I do not know what. I already tried trashing the preferences folder to no avail. Can anyone help me out with this minor but hugely annoying "feature?"
From what I can tell, you have the option to set startup to open where you want. If you're opening Word, I would guess you want to open to something - whether an existing document or a new type of document. The customize tab will allow you to set what to open to. Although I do understand where you're coming from, you may be able to customize it to open to a more desirable option.