Word has a chance to become the best writing program without the distractions

Microsoft Word may and is the most popular text editor in the world, but it can not be hidden that ... it lacks some charm. However, there are ways to make it more friendly, and soon you can turn Word into a real "distraction free" editor.

My relationship with Word can be described by the English-language term "love-hate". I love a little bit, I hate it a little. I use it because I have to, and since the same is used by others, I do not see the point in using other programs that will only make it more difficult to cooperate.

I like Word most of the time. Almost every text I wrote on Spider's Web is created in the Microsoft editor. I like the fact that thanks to integration with OneDrive I have access to text from any computer, anywhere, also from the phone.

However, there are situations in which Word does not pass the exam.

The first is writing large texts. It's really big, like a book. Try to open 300 pages of the document in Word - once, that it will work tragically slow, and two that finding anything in such a huge file is a murder. That's why writing for long Word texts is simply not suitable, or at least it is not the optimal solution (although most writers use it anyway, because in the end every book has to land in .docx format to pass it on).

Word does not work well if we really want to focus on writing. Fortunately, it may change soon.

Microsoft Word as distraction free editor? This can be done today - to some extent.

Officially, the Microsoft text editor has no "no distractions" mode, such as iA Writer , ByWord, Typora, or other programs that have gained immense popularity in recent years.

For comparison - this is the default view in Word:

And so in iA Writer:

Guess which program is easier to focus on and where you write nicer ...

Interestingly, Microsoft Word - at least in the version on macOS - offers what is called "concentration mode", but compared to iA Writer it looks quite ... pitiful:

However, the rumor has it that the "mode of concentration" will soon also hit windows computers. It is now available to participants of the Insider program, so it should soon reach a wide audience.

https://twitter.com/OfficeInsider/status/1116370323992084481

Although the concentration mode itself looks awful, in combination with other available Word features, it can transform a cluttered text editor into a beautiful, minimalist white sheet.

How to write in Word without distractions?

Microsoft Word has a long history of several functions known from the distraction free editors, available for subscribers of Office 365. Only that it hides them in a place that most users would not fall into - in the "educational tools" (immersive view). This is due to the fact that all these functions were created for users suffering from some form of disability. In creating them, Microsoft did not think about such an application as described here.

When we click the "view" tab on the ribbon, we will see the "educational tools" menu, and there are several options in it.

After selecting this mode, Word suddenly changes:

When you additionally enable ribbon auto-detection, the program may look like this

Or even yes (something for dark mode fans):

Word even offers the option of highlighting one or more lines to better focus on the selected text fragment:

In fact, the only thing that is missing for luck is the so-called "Typewriter scrolling", meaning scrolling from the center of the page (as in a typewriter), and not from the beginning.

However, it can be seen that even after switching on all modes of "educational tools", Word still stands out from iA Writer. And here comes the "mode of concentration". At macOS now, having chosen "educational tools" and "concentration mode", we can make Word look like this:

At first glance - indistinguishable from iA Writer or other distraction free editor.

It is a pity that Microsoft is not aware of how close it is to creating the most popular distraction free editor in the world.

All tools are already embedded in Word. In fact, it would be enough to combine them into one, under one name (I suggest "immersive view", if that name is already in the interface) and enable users to quickly switch between the overloaded combine and the minimalist text editor.

I would like this text to be read by someone from the Office team and he thought "in total ... why not?" - and he gave us a great minimalist text editor, which at the user's request can become a powerful harvester for working with words. And vice versa.

Word is, without a doubt, the most popular writing program in the world, but it is also not suitable for everything and does not suit everyone visually. However, since Microsoft has opened up so much to the creators of the recent times, then ... what basically is an obstacle to adjust one of the most important programs in their portfolio to their needs?

Word has a chance to become the best writing program without the distractions