Microsoft Word 2007 Document View Options

Let's first take a look at the Word 2007 Ribbon. On the Ribbon you will see a View tab which you can access by clicking on it or by pressing Alt+W. The Word 2007 View tab contains all the commands that enable you to change your Word 2007 document view.

The Word 2007 View tab consists of five groups:

• Document Views
• Show/Hide
• Zoom
• Window
• Macros

The Document Views group contains the five different ways you can view your Word 2007 documents. You can choose Print Layout, Full Screen Reading, Web Layout, Outline, and Draft.

The Show Hide group is where you can choose to see the Ruler Bar that runs along the top and left side of your document, to see gridlines in your document, to open the Document Map, and to see the pages of your document displayed as Thumbnails.

The Zoom group is where you can change the size of the document you're viewing. The default settings for Word 2007 is 100%, but you can choose to view your documents as One Page or Two Pages, or as Page Width. To choose a custom setting, click on Zoom.

The Window group is where you can open a copy of your document in a new window, arrange to see all open documents, or view two open documents side by side.

The Macros group allows you to view a list of available macros and also enables you to record new macros.

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Print Layout view is the default document view setting for Word 2007. By working with your document in Print Layout view, you will be able to see how your document will look when it is printed. In Print Layout view, you can see where each page breaks as well as the headers and footers.

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If you would like to be able to see more of your document for reading purposes, try using the Full Screen Reading view. To turn this view on, simply press the Full Screen Reading button on the View tab on the Ribbon. You will notice that the Ribbon disappears when Full Screen Reading view is enabled. Hiding the Ribbon provides you with a full screen view to make it easier to read documents, which is especially helpful on smaller displays like laptops. However, your ability to edit the document is limited in this view.

To exit Full Screen mode, click Close in the upper right corner of the screen, or press the Esc key on your keyboard.

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If you want to be able to type into your document when viewing your document in Full Screen Reading view, click the View Options button in the upper right corner and click on Allow Typing.

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If you want to see two pages in Full Screen Reading view, just click the View Options button in the upper right corner and choose Show Two Pages.

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In Word 2007 Draft view is intended to be used for quick editing of the text in your Word documents. Because it is designed for text editing, certain elements of the document are not visible in Draft view such as headers and footers. Also, page breaks are shown as a dotted line to maximize the editing area. This is a perfect view for proofreading your documents.

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The Web Layout view allows you to see how your document will appear in a web browser. In other words, you will see how your document would look as a web page.

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Outline view displays your document as an outline and the outlining tools become available. In Outline view, only the headings are shown in your Word 2007 document; you don't see any of the body text. This enables you to move different parts of your document around more easily. For example, you can move the 4th heading to be the 2nd heading and the accompanying body text will move with it.

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The Show/Hide Group on the Microsoft Word 2007 View tab is where you can choose to display the following tools:

Ruler: The Ruler displays above your document and along the left side of your document and basically looks like a ruler. This is a helpful tool for setting tabs, indents, and margins. Double-clicking on the top or horizontal ruler bar will open up the Paragraph dialog box. Double-clicking on the left or vertical ruler bar opens up the Page Setup dialog box.

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Gridlines: When you check the gridlines box, horizontal and vertical lines will be displayed on your document. This is a helpful feature to use when trying to line up pictures and text boxes.

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Document Map: An outline of your document's headings will be displayed in a pane on the left side of your document. You can then use this pane to quickly navigate to different parts of your document. Just click on a heading and you'll move to where that heading is in your document.

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Next: Continue on to the next page for more tips on viewing documents in Microsoft Word.