Views in Word

You can view documents in seven different ways. Each view is optimized for different tasks and presents your document differently. You can switch quickly from one view to another to make your work easier and to access the features that you want to use. Some content or functionality may become inaccessible when you switch from one view to another. If this happens, you can usually restore access to content or functionality by switching back to the previous view.

Tip  To switch views, on the View menu, click the name of the view that you want (Draft, Web Layout, Outline, Print Layout, Notebook Layout, Publishing Layout, or Full Screen), or click a view icon on the view changer View changer. The view changer is located in the lower-left corner of the Word window.

View

Description

Draft

Use draft view to edit and format text quickly when you don't have to see how the content looks when you print it.

Draft view shows text formatting but simplifies the layout of the page so that you can type and edit quickly. In draft view, some page elements do not appear, such as the boundaries between pages, headers and footers, backgrounds, and pictures that do not have text wrapping style set to In Line with Text.

Web layout

Use Web layout view to conceptualize how content appears when it is published to the Web. This view provides an approximation of how content appears, not an exact match.

Note  Web layout view does not contain HTML coding. To convert a document that you create by using Web layout view, save the document as a Web page.

Outline

Use outline view to create an outline and manipulate text easily. Move text up and down, expand and collapse levels, change heading levels, or show only one kind of heading level.

Note  If you switch from outline view to another view, the levels disappear. To see the outline levels, switch back to outline view.

Print layout

Use print layout view to see the document as it appears on the printed page. Print layout view is the default view when you open a new document.

Note  Switching from print layout view to publishing layout view can make some text uneditable. If this happens, switch back to print layout view, where you can edit all the text.

Notebook layout

Use notebook layout view to take notes in a meeting or lecture, create an outline for a project, collect research material, record and play back audio notes, or capture thoughts quickly. The default format for notebook layout view is a list format. If you have Outlook for Mac installed, you can convert any items in your notebook layout view document to an Outlook task.

Note  Notebook layout view is intended primarily for taking notes. When you print a document that you create in notebook layout view, only the content prints. The notebook elements that you see in notebook layout view — such as the rule lines, notebook rings, and tabs — do not print.

Publishing layout

Use publishing layout view to create newsletters, brochures, flyers, or other format-rich documents. Publishing layout view includes a standard toolbar that contains a set of the most frequently used commands and elements that are used for format-rich documents. In publishing layout view, you can reorder overlapping objects such as pictures, graphics, and text boxes. In addition, you can turn on ligatures, which gives you quick access to many more fonts.

Full Screen

Use full screen view when you want to hide the authoring tools and devote the maximize amount of screen space for reading or writing documents.

Note  Full screen view provides only a basic set of authoring tools and is intended primarily for reading documents. To access the other authoring tools, switch to another view, such as print layout view.