In default, Word's Full Screen Reading Layout is of little use to most accounting, financial, and business professionals. Intended to be a way to read a long document in an environment that emulates a book - that is, with pages side-by-side - most users find this layout to be of little value because by default this layout opens in a "Screen" view rather than a true "Page" view. The Screen view distorts how the document will look when it is printed. However, by changing an option to change the layout to a Page view, the Full Screen Reading Layout becomes a fantastic feature, particularly when reading or reviewing lengthy documents.
To enable the Full Screen Reading Layout, click the Full Screen Reading icon from the View tab of the Ribbon as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 - Turning On Word's Full Screen Reading Layout
Upon enabling Full Screen Reading Layout, the document appears as shown in Figure 2. Notably absent from that view are document headers, footers, and page numbers. Additionally, the layout of document does not align with how the document will appear when printed.
Figure 2 - Document in Full Screen Reading Layout
To address the issues associated with the default settings of Full Screen Reading Layout, click View Options in the upper, right-hand corner to open the Options dialog box pictured in Figure 3. In the Options dialog box, adjust any desired settings. One setting you will likely enable is labeled Show Printed Page; this setting causes the document to appear as it will when printed.
Figure 3 - Adjusting Options for Full Screen Reading Layout
As shown in Figure 4, having modified the Options, the document now appears in a full "book view," with the pages appearing exactly as they will when the document is printed. Further, header, footers, page numbers, and all other document elements appear with full fidelity.
Figure 4 - Modified Full Screen Reading Layout
By making a few quick adjustments to Word's Full Screen Reading Layout, it becomes a valuable tool for reading and editing lengthy Word documents. You should not ignore this tool the next time you have a multipage Word document requiring your attention.
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