Word 2013 reading features detailed

With Office 2013, Microsoft wants not only to improve the writing features of Word but also improve the way people read documents. In a new post on the Office Next blog, Microsoft goes over some details about how they have made documents look and read better in the new Word.

"When you open a document in Read Mode, you’ll immediately notice that we’ve minimized the application UI as much as possible. When you read, the UI can be a distraction. Our goal was to eliminate distractions so the content had your full attention." 

The new Word also supports Office 2013's full screen mode, which removes all of the user interface elements. The new Word has also been optimized for touch screen input, allowing users to read each page of a document with a flick of a finger. The Read Mode in the new Word also has sliders so that users can adjust the size of the font or the width of the columns in the document. It can also resize the window itself.

"Whatever size you make the window, or if you rotate your tablet between landscape and portrait modes, the screen will always be divided into equally sized columns that stay as close as possible to the column width you prefer."

The new version of Word also includes some very useful reference tools, such as being able to look up a word in a dictionary, a quick translation and a way to search for topics in a document via Bing.