Escape from MS Word’s Reading Layout

November 25th, 2008

A reader asked, “How do I permanently change my view when I open documents? Meaning, when I open an attached document, it always opens in “reading layout” and I just like to see a normal piece of paper, not a book layout. I can’t figure out how to make that change to “normal” and stay that way!”

MS Word can be annoying by always opening email attachments in their Reading Layout. This gives you a nice overview, but isn’t “comfortable” and doesn’t allow you to edit the document. Follow the image guide above, or the steps below:

Word 2003:
1. Click on the Tools menu and select Options
2. Click on the General tab
3. Uncheck “Allow starting in the Reading Layout”
4. Hit OK

Word 2007:
1. Click on the Office Button / “Orb” at the top left
2. Click Word Options at the bottom
3. Click Popular in the left column
4. Uncheck “Open e-mail attachments in Full Screen Reading View”

Tags: Microsoft, Videos, Word
2 Comments »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 8:55 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Matthew Durham says:

November 25, 2008 at 11:41 am

I miss the audio to go along with the tutorial but I appreciate this one as much as all the others! Many times I have wished I knew how to do this…now I do!
Thanks again,
Matthew

Joshua Bowser says:

November 25, 2008 at 11:47 am

Matthew,

Thanks for the comments here!

People prefer the videos as they get the demonstration. However, this was so simple and short, I almost didn’t make a video it at all. This video method is actually an animated image (GIF) so it is small, fast, easy, and host of other benefits, but… lacks audio.

Note taken though, maybe I’ll stick to the real recordings as much as possible.

Escape from MS Word’s Reading Layout

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