Support reading and writing by using Immersive Reader to customize how word documents appear while you read and edit. Immersive Reader provides options for a comfortable and easy to process experience by allowing you to listen to the text read aloud or adjust how text appears by modifying spacing, color and more.
Looking for more options to Listen to your Word documents? Check out Listen to your Word documents for more info.
Choose the version of Word you're using below:
Column Width changes line length to improve focus and comprehension.
Page Color can make text easy to scan with less eye strain.
Line Focus removes distractions so that you can move through a document line by line. Adjust the focus to put one, three, or five lines in view at a time.
Text Spacing increases the spacing between words, characters, and lines.
Syllables shows breaks between syllables, to improve word recognition and pronunciation.
Read Aloud highlights each word as it reads your document to you.
Tip: Get directly to Read Aloud by right clicking anywhere in your document and selecting Read Aloud.
To change the language for immersive reader, select Review, Language, then Language, and select Set Proofing Language. You can select a language from there.
Select the View tab, then select Immersive Reader, then select Close Immersive Reader.
Start or exit Read Aloud: Ctrl+Alt+Space
Pause or play Read Alout: Ctrl+Space
Speed up reading speed: Alt+Right
Slow down reading speed: Alt+Left
Read the previous paragraph: Ctrl+Right
Read the next paragraph: Ctrl+Left
Go to View > Learning Tools, and select your options:
Note: Use the playback controls to start and stop the narration, to change the speed of the reading, and to switch between reading voices.
Once your document opens within Immersive Reader, you can do one or more of the following, depending on how you want to focus on the content in your document:
Select the gear icon to open Voice Settings.
The Voice Speed slider controls the playback speed of the reader.
You can change the appearance of your document by using Text options. The choices you make in text options can help remove visual distraction and improve text readability.
The Text Options menu lets you:
Parts of Speech controls grammar highlighting and helps readers understand complex sentences.
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Picture Dictionary gives you the ability to click on any single word and view visual support. You can also hear the word read aloud.
Translate allows you to view a selected word or the entire document in your preferred language.
Use the toggles to adjust your reading preferences.
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Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate.
Select the back arrow or tap Esc on your keyboard to exit Immersive Reader.
Some Immersive Reader tools are available in Word for iPad. To turn on Immersive Reader while reading or editing a Word document:
2. Select Immersive Reader
3. Choose from the following tools to make your document more comfortable to read and edit.
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Note: Read Aloud reads text in the default speech language of your operating system. For information about supported languages and how to add additional text-to-speech voices, see How to download Text-To-Speech languages for Windows
