Word: Edit in Print Preview mode

Did you know that you can edit a Word document while you’re in Print Preview mode?

Why would you want to do this in Print Preview mode? Maybe you have a very long document and you want to remove excess page breaks, or you notice a typo while you’re doing a final scan of the document to see how it will print. When you click Close from Print Preview mode, you get taken back to the beginning of the document and so you have to scroll lots of pages to find that page break to remove or that typo to fix.

When I showed this little trick to some people while I was at the Peer Showcase session at the WritersUA Conference, I was surprised that none of them knew you could do this and they were all impressed that you can. So here’s how.

1. Make sure you are in Print Preview mode:
   * Word 2003: Click on the main toolbar.
   * Word 2007: Click the large Microsoft Office button in the top left corner, select Print > Print Review.
2. Disable the default zoom function for the Magnifier:
   * Word 2003: Click the Magnifier button on the print preview toolbar to disable its default zoom function.
   * Word 2007: Clear the Magnifier check box in the Preview command group.
3. You can now edit the Word document.

Don’t ask me WHY the Magnifier toggles from zoom to edit modes – it just does.

[Steps updated to incorporate Word 2007, 21 August 2008]