Full-Screen editing in Word 2007
There is a full screen editing mode in Word 2007, if you know where to look.
We’re obliged to Rob G from Pennsylvania who found the full screen mode in Word 2007.
Full screen editing is great on smaller displays like laptops or netbooks as well as anyone who likes to type without the distraction of Word paraphernalia.
In Word 2003 full screen view will remove from the screen all toolbars, menus and the status bar leaving your document filling up the entire monitor. If you move your mouse to the top of the screen the Word menu will drop down.
It seemed that Full Screen mode had disappeared from Word 2007. It is not on the View tab of the ribbon and a scroll down the command list shows only ‘Full Screen Reading’. The Help files only refer to Full Screen Reading mode (which can allow typing) so apparently Full Screen editing is unknown even to Microsoft!
Excel 2007 has full Screen view available on the View tab of the ribbon.
Rob found the option hiding under ‘Toggle Full Screen View’ in the Quick Access Toolbar command list (either ‘All Commands’ or ‘Commands not in the Ribbon’).
From there you can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar
Shortcut
You can make a keyboard shortcut for Full Screen mode by going to the QAT options (as above) then the Customize button at the bottom.
Under the All Commands category you’ll find the unhelpfully named command ‘ToggleFull’ – full what you might wonder? Click on the command and a more helpful description appears at the bottom.
(sharp eyed Office Watch readers will note another anomaly in the above screen shot – answer)
You don’t really need the toggle (ie switch on or off) because pressing the Escape key in Full Screen mode will return you to standard view. This works in Word 2003 and Word 2007.
One difference with the full screen mode in Word 2007 is that moving the mouse to the top of the screen reveals nothing – no Quick Access Toolbar nor ribbon. Standard shortcuts like Ctrl + B and the cut/copy/paste keystrokes will work. However the ribbon shortcuts are disabled in Full Screen mode which is a real disappointment – what’s the point of having keyboard shortcuts if they won’t work all the time?
PowerPoint 2007 has a ‘Toggle Full Screen’ command that looks similar to the one in Word 2007 but its disabled in all editing modes.
See Also
- Ribbon customization in Office 2010
- Simple monitor rotation utility
- Unassigned shortcuts in Word 2007 may be assigned
- Using Office on netbook computers, part 3