Summary

Have you heard of the great feature in Microsoft Office – Immersive reader?

This feature can make reading documents, emails, and notes easier by allowing you to listen to the text aloud, whilst simultaneously highlighting the text being read.

Perhaps you’ve got a long document to read through, or you’d like to review some text and listen out for any mistakes, or perhaps you’d just like to take a break from staring at a computer screen.

Immersive reader also allows you to adjust how text appears by modifying font size and style, spacing, colour and background colour – helping to improve your focus and make documents much easier to read.

How do I use Immersive Reader?

Immersive reader is simple to use! We’ll walk you through how to use in this blog.

1. Open your Microsoft Word document.

2. Select the View tab, then select Immersive Reader.

3. Immersive Reader will launch a full screen experience.

4. You can choose the Immersive Reader options that work for you from the ribbon.

Immersive Reader options

• Column Width – changes line length to improve focus and comprehension.

• Page Colour – can make text easy to scan with less eye strain.

• Line Focus – removes distractions so that you can swiftly 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 spacing between words, characters, and lines.

• Syllables – shows breaks between syllables, to help improve word recognition and pronunciation.

• Read Aloud – highlights each word as it reads your document to you.

5. Once you click in your Word document to read or edit, the Immersive Reader ribbon will minimise. To make the ribbon visible so you can change the Immersive Reader settings or close Immersive Reader, select the ellipses (three dots …) at the top of the screen.

Additional Information

When using the read aloud functionality, there are some keyboard shortcuts available to make your experience even better.

Start or exit Read Aloud: Ctrl+Alt+Space

Pause or play Read Aloud: 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

NOTE: Immersive Reader is available in the desktop and online versions of Word, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote. It is also available in the Edge browser where it will read web pages aloud. 

Further Information

If you have any questions about this or need assistance, then please contact the GCC Group Support Team on 0345 260 1151 or servicedesk@gccgroup.co.uk

Microsoft 365

In our personal and business lives, we’re becoming more connected than ever. Microsoft 365 is the world-class cloud-based platform which helps you to achieve your goals from anywhere.

Microsoft 365 is a suite of apps bringing together all the greatest Office applications in one cloud-based platform, enabling your people to connect, collaborate and get things done from anywhere.

Applications that help you stay connected and get things done include:

• Word
  Microsoft’s iconic word processing program allows you to create and share documents, now with intelligent document support.

• Excel
  Simplify complex data with the world’s most-used spreadsheet program.

• PowerPoint
  Create and share outstanding presentations.

• Teams
  Bring everyone together with secure video & call conferencing, instant messaging, and collaboration.

• Outlook
  Manage all your emails in one place.

• One Drive
  Save files securely and access them at any time, from anywhere.

• SharePoint
  Create team sites to share information, files, and resources.

Plus, other useful applications such as Exchange, Intune and Azure Information Protection.

Speak to us today to find out how which Microsoft applications could be deployed in your business.