Use the entire screen when editing

There’s no trickery required to switch to a full-screen view in any version of Word. In Word 2003, for example, open the View menu and choose Full Screen: instantly, all the surrounding control paraphernalia will disappear, to be replaced by a full-screen editing view. To return to the previous view either click the Close Full Screen button in the floating toolbar (if visible) or just press the Escape (Esc) key on the keyboard.

The same option can be activated using the keyboard by holding down Alt and pressing V to open the View menu and then tapping U to select the Full Screen option. However, to make the action even quicker you can create your own shortcut. To do this in Word 2003, choose Customize from the Tools menu. In the Customize dialogue box, click the Keyboard button and, in the Customize Keyboard dialogue box, scroll down the Categories list on the left to find the All Commands entry – click to select it. Now scroll down the Commands list on the right to find ToggleFull and click to select it. Finally, click in the ‘Press new shortcut key’ and press the key combination you’d like to use to switch to the full-screen view. If the chosen key combination is already in use, a message to this effect will be displayed: ‘Close both dialogue boxes and try out the new shortcut’.

The same full-screen view is available in later versions of Word, though for reasons known only to Microsoft it’s not so easy to find. First, click the down-pointing arrow at the top of the Word window to open the Quick Access toolbar. Choose More Commands from the dropdown menu and, at the dialogue box, ensure Customize is selected on the left and choose Commands Not in the Ribbon below the ‘Choose commands from’ heading. Now scroll down the list to find the Toggle Full Screen View entry, click to select it and click the Add button. Click OK to close the dialogue box. A Full Screen View button will appear on the Quick Access toolbar at the top. Just click this to switch to full-screen view. As with Word 2003, clicking Escape (Esc) on the keyboard will return to the previous view.