How to Use the Immersive Reader and Focus
(Note: Suitable for users of Word 2019, 2021 and Word for Microsoft 365.)
Objective
Eliminate distractions and have a more focused, accessible reading experience using the Immersive Reader and Focus.
The Immersive Reader and Focus Explained
The Immersive reader is an interactive tool that assists with reading comprehension. This tool makes text more accessible to learners and improves focus. It’s a great tool for everyone, but it is a particularly brilliant tool for anyone learning English or learners with disabilities.
Using Immersive Reader, we can have the text on the page read aloud back to us at different speeds and by different voices. We can change the text size, font, and spacing, making the document easier to read. We can add syllables to aid with emphasis, translate text to more than 80 languages, and see words represented as pictures.
The Focus feature is another reading mode that removes the noise allowing us to focus on the document at hand.
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Immersive Redear
Let’s look at the immersive reader in more detail.
- Click on the View tab.
- From the Immersive group, click Immersive Reader.
Our document will be placed into Immersive Reader mode.
We can see our options on the Immersive Reader contextual ribbon.
Column Width
We can adjust the column width of our document.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to Column width.
Choose from Very Narrow, Narrow, Moderate, or Wide.
Page Colour
We can change the color of the page background.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to Page Color.
Choose a color from the palette or select More Colors to see a wider range.
Line Focus
We can turn on the Line Focus option to simultaneously highlight our document one, three, or five lines. This can be useful as it eliminates distractions and helps us focus.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to Line Focus.
- Choose One Line, Three Lines, or Five Lines.
Use the arrows on the right-hand side to move to the next line.
Text Spacing
We can turn on text spacing to add more space between letters and words. This can make our document much easier to read.
- Click Text Spacing.
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Syllables
Adding syllables to words is extremely helpful to non-native English speakers when it comes to reading comprehension, pace, and emphasis. A small dot indicates a syllable.
- Click Syllables.
Read Aloud
We can use Read Aloud to read the text in a document back to us. The reader will read all text on the page plus any alt text that has been added to images, charts, and other objects. Therefore, it is important to add alt text information to each new object added to a document to ensure our document is accessible to all.
- Click Read Aloud.
The reader will read out the text. The current word is highlighted on the screen, and users can control the speed and volume of playback using the control panel on the right-hand side.
Close Immersive Reader
To come out of the Immersive Reader view and return to the Page Layout view, click Close Immersive Reader.
Focus
Focus Mode eliminates noise and distractions. It collapses up the ribbons and hides scrollbars, leaving us with just the document on the screen to focus on. We can change different options whilst in Focus mode to enhance our reading experience.
- From the View tab, in the Immersive group, click Focus.
- To exit Focus, press the ESC key.
Focus Options
There are a few options we can modify when in Focus mode.
- Click on the three dots at the top of the screen to show the ribbon.
We can change the color of the page background.
- In the Immersive group, click the drop-down underneath Background.
- Choose a color from the palette.
We can also view our document in Side to Side view instead of the default, Vertical. Side to Side view feels more like reading a document and turning the pages.
- From the Page Movement group, click Side to Side.
We can use the scroll wheel on our mouse or the PgUp/PgDown keys to turn the page in the document.
Close Focus Mode
To come out of Focus Mode, press the ESC key on the keyboard.
- Click on the first slide.
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Deborah Ashby
Deborah Ashby is a TAP Accredited IT Trainer, specializing in the design, delivery, and facilitation of Microsoft courses both online and in the classroom.She has over 11 years of IT Training Experience and 24 years in the IT Industry. To date, she's trained over 10,000 people in the UK and overseas at companies such as HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, Parliament, SKY, Microsoft, Kew Gardens, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.She's a qualified MOS Master for 2010, 2013, and 2016 editions of Microsoft Office and is COLF and TAP Accredited and a member of The British Learning Institute.
