Office Pro Plus Word Throwback “Just Write” Edit

I'm a fan of Tim Ferris, author of The Four Hour Work Week. Given this, you can imagine my horror when I found out via this video that Tim doesn't do much of his text editing in Word. Not big on documents (in the traditional sense of the word) and more about simply composing text for blogs etc, Tim is a fan of a very basic text editor that emulates the word processors of yore. Also, living his message of laser sharp focus on "major tasks," Tim is all about writing, and only writing. We're talking black screen, green text, no "distracting" buttons etc. Tim has a point. We know that some folks have a very discrete writing process. They write, then they edit, and then they review/format/finalize. If you want to "just write," and minimize any possible distractions, you've got a couple of options before ditching Word. First,Microsoft Office Standard, here is Word 2007 (Note: I changed by Office theme to black—Office Button, Word Options,Windows 7 Home Premium Key, set Color Scheme to Black) Note: all screen shots in this post are of the entire screen at 1024x768 (i.e. not just Word) Option 1: No Pages & No Ribbon This is a good option if you want to "just write" right now for just this document. It's a quick and easy 80%-of-the-way-there option. Double click on any Tab on the Ribbon. This will hide the Ribbon. Click the View Tab. Click Web Layout. This will turn Word into one big writing canvas. Right click on the Windows taskbar, click Properties, and check Auto-hide the taskbar. This will take the Windows taskbar off the screen unless you mouse over where it used to be. Full-screen screen capture of Word 2007 running on Windows Vista at 1024x768 Option 2: Create the "Just Write" Template This is your best option if you often want to "just write" often, and don't want to fiddle with Windows settings. Open a blank document. Click the View Tab. Click Web Layout. Click on the Page Layout Tab and then Page Color. Set the Page Color to Black. This will set you up for the throwback high-contrast editing experience without touching Windows. Right click on the Normal Style on the Home Tab. Click Modify. Change the font to Lucida Console and make it green. This will complete your throwback high-contrast editing efforts. Save as a Word Template. Click the Office Button, Word Options, Customize, select Commands Not in the Ribbon from the drop-down on the left, select Toggle Full Screen View, and click the Add button. This will add the Toggle Full Screen View command to your Quick Access Toolbar (the thing above the Home Tab) Do the Windows taskbar goodness mentioned above.Now you can simply double click on the template any time you want to "just write," click Toggle Full Screen View on your Quick Access Toolbar,Microsoft Office Standard 2007, and "just write." Full-screen screen capture of Word 2007 running on Windows Vista at 1024x768 Option 3: Customize Windows This is your best option if you don't want to create a template and don't mind a drastically different user interface experience in all of your applications. Click on the Windows Start button, Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization,Office Pro Plus, Personalization, Window Color and Appearance,Office Standard, the "Open classic appearance properties for more color options" link, and select High Contrast #2 Open a Word document Click the View Tab. Click Web Layout. Click Toggle Full Screen View on your Quick Access Toolbar (see detailed steps above) Hide the Windows taskbar (see detailed steps above) Full-screen screen capture of Word 2007 running on Windows Vista at 1024x768 Tim – I love your writing and agree with you on the merits of "just writing" without any possible distractions. Give just writing in Word 2007 a shot. I think you'll like it. - Jonathan Bailor <div