How can I make Word 2013 open in Draft View by default?

Anonymous
2013-04-16T04:27:08+00:00

I use Word 2013 on a 14" laptop and the default view, Print Layout, is a colossal waste of space, but I can't get the program to open in Draft View by default. Have done the following:

  • Changed settings to "allow documents to open in Draft View"
  • Saved documents in Draft View...they re-open in Print Layout
  • Tried to change New Document template to Draft View but new documents still only open in Print Layout.

I hope that the answer is not "you have to change to draft view every single time you open a document." There are already a lot more clicks / action in Word 2013 than in previous versions.

Have searched forums but there doesn't seem to be an answer for this in Word 2013.

Thanks for your assistance.

BP211

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Answer accepted by question author
Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2013-04-16T19:49:33+00:00

Follow the instructions at http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm to put the following two macros into a module in the Normal.dotm template:

Sub AutoOpen()

    ActiveWindow.View.Draft = True

End Sub

Sub AutoNew()

    ActiveWindow.View.Draft = True

End Sub

The first will run automatically every time you open an existing document, and the second will run when you create a new document.

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Answer accepted by question author
Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2013-04-19T03:51:09+00:00

That one's hidden about as deeply as possible. A lot of the things in the Options dialog are properties of the Options object in VBA, so you can say things like Options.Overtype = False. Controlling the draft font display is not one of those things. :-(

Actually, it's a throwback to Word 2003 and earlier. The Dialogs collection includes a member called Dialogs(wdDialogToolsOptionsView), which refers to a tab of the Options dialog that no longer exists (and of course the Options command isn't on the Tools menu, which doesn't exist). That dialog has an argument named DraftFont, which is a boolean (true/false) value. So this is how you do it:

Sub AutoOpen()

Dim dlg As Dialog

Set dlg = Dialogs(wdDialogToolsOptionsView)

With dlg

    .DraftFont = False

    .Execute

End With

ActiveWindow.View.Draft = True

End Sub

and similarly for AutoNew().

By the way, both your original problem and this one point the the probability that there's something amiss in your Windows registry, because these things should be saved there automatically. This trouble sometimes happens when you have certain third-party add-ins or other programs that interfere with Word's ability to write to the registry. There can also be misconfiguration of the permissions for certain parts of the registry. If you think that working with macros is harrowing, you don't want to know how to troubleshoot the registry. If these two macros solve the problem, leave well enough alone.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-02T04:12:24+00:00

    This did NOT work and actually screwed up my Word program!!! It changed so that the default view always showed "Courier" font no matter what.  I had to pay $149 to Microsoft to get advanced help just to get MS Word 2013 back to the way it was.  At least the fonts are OK again.  But it STILL won't open in draft view by default.  They said it would cost $259 for them to show me how to set up a macro properly, with no guarantee that it would open in draft mode.

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  2. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-10-28T19:42:05+00:00

    You can try setting a delay so that Word waits a while before it tries to change the view. For example:

    Sub AutoNew()

    ChangeViews

    End Sub

    Sub AutoOpen()

    ChangeViews

    End Sub

    Sub ChangeViews()

    On Error GoTo errhandler

    Application.OnTime Now + TimeValue("00:00:02"), "ChangeViews"

    ActiveWindow.View.Type = 1

    errhandler:

    Exit Sub

    End Sub

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-10-28T18:06:38+00:00

    Hi - I tried to follow the macro setup and x'd out of my current new word document to open a new document and test it.  Still opens in print view.  I can click on macros, see the macro, click run on it and it changes the view to draft, but that defeats the whole purpose. 

    What am I doing wrong?

    I went into Macro, Create a name AutoOpen and then repeated for one named AutoNew.

    Here's how they look:

    Sub AutoNew()

    '

    '  AutoNew Macro

    '

    '

      ActiveWindow.View.Draft = True

    End Sub

    Ditto the above for a Sub AutoOpen() macro...

    Under Normal, Modules, it created a module called NewMacros.

    Please help!

    Update:

    These macros work when I open an existing document or open a new document via the ctrl-N.  However, when I get into word initially (and you're in a 'new' document initially, it is in page layout...).

    I'll live with getting into word initially and using its document1 as my new document and changing the view to draft manually..  It's great to not have to change it when re-opening documents - thanks!!

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