Often I find myself needing to open several Word or Excel documents at one time. Instead of doing them individually, try selecting multiple files from explorer or from within the application open dialog holding the control key and clicking on the files. Once selected, you can either double click or select the open button and each of your selected documents will open.

This trick works in both Windows and Linux with just about any MDI (multiple document interface) application such as MS Office, Open Office and development applications.