MS Word

Turn Off Formatting Display in Outline View

The Problem:

I use Outline view all the time for taking notes in classes and meetings. The problem is that the formatting constantly changes when I tab in or outif I tab in, I have to press Ctrl+I immediately to turn off italics. I just want the formatting to stay the same, but I can't find any way to make that happen.

The Solution:

When you're tabbing in and out, you're changing the heading level, right? So what's happening is that Word is applying the different built-in heading styles. In the default Normal.dot template, the Heading 2, Heading 5, and Heading 8 styles use italic, so when you hit one of those levels, you'll get italics.

The easiest fix is to ignore the problem. Click the Show Formatting button on the Outlining toolbar to turn off the display of formatting. All your text will now appear in your default font, without any italics (unless your default font is italic).

If you don't want to lose all the font formatting in Outline view, change the Heading styles from italic to regular font. Bear in mind, though, that this change carries through in all views.

Change the Font Used for Outline View

The Problem:

I've learned to click the Show Formatting button on the Outlining toolbar to turn off the display of formatting in Outline view, but I'd like to use a different font for working in this view.

The Solution:

You just need to change the default font for the template attached to the document. Choose Format » Font, select the desired font details, click the Default button, and click the Yes button in the confirmation dialog box.

Be warned that this change will also affect other views if your styles use the default font. If you want to use this particular font only when using Outline view, create a new template with this font as the default. Attach the new template to the document when you want to work in Outline view, and reattach the document's previous template when you switch to a different view. (This solution is practical only for protracted sessions in Outline view. If you want to flip back and forth between Outline view and other views, it won't do you much good.)


If, when you switch views, the current selection disappears from the screen, press the left arrow key and then the right arrow key to bring it back into view.

Print from Outline View

The Problem:

I want to print documents in Outline format, but I can't.

The Solution:

You can, you know. If you're looking for an "Outline" option in the Print dialog box, don't worryit's simpler than that. Switch to Outline view, expand or collapse the outline so that it shows only the levels you want to print, and then choose File » Print as usual.