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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
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.

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
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.

Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.
0 comments

59 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2014-04-11T16:53:46+00:00

    The "macros disabled" message usually indicates that the document is stored in a folder that isn't one of the ones in the Trusted Location list. In the Options dialog, click Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Trusted Locations to see that list. You can either move the .docm file to one of those folders (and modify the startup switch accordingly) or add the file's current location to the list.

    If the file is already in a trusted location, click Macro Settings in the Trust Center and select "Disable all macros except digitally signed macros". That really should say "... and macros in files within trusted locations", but I guess that would have been too complicated. 

    If you would like to add a digital signature to the macro for good measure, here's how:

    • On the Windows Start menu, click All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Digital Certificate for VBA Projects. (If that item doesn't appear, you need to go to Control Panel > Programs & Features, select the Office icon and click Change, and add the Digital Certificate feature under Office Shared Features.) Enter a name for the certificate and click OK.
    • In Word, open the .docm file and start the macro editor.
    • Select the project for the .docm file.
    • Click Tools > Digital Signature.
    • Click the Choose button and select the certificate (you can have more than one on the computer).
    • Click OK. Save the document.

    The tool that creates the certificate (selfcert.exe) will tell you, but I'll stress here, that the certificates created this way are valid only on your computer, because they don't have a trail back to a Certificate Authority. If you put the signed document on another computer, the certificate won't be recognized.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-11T16:09:56+00:00

    Thanks, Jay. Most of my day is spent in large Word files, unintended for print or web. I open them regularly for adding content, recording correspondence, listing research notes and quotes, etc.  The large files load very slowly in print-layout view but load quickly in draft view. Your AutoOpen macro was a great help. Thanks.

    There was one complication, but I found a workaround:

    In 2003 or so, MS removed the custom menu feature from Word, so I replaced its functionality by creating a menu page. It lists 180 of the (generally large) documents as hyperlinks to the file, organized in ten sections. When I first open Word, the shortcut I use has a /t startup switch that opens this menu page, and it remains open until I close Word. The menu pages opens in landscape mode, filling the screen, and listing all the linksin five columns in one page. But in draft view it shows onlythe first column. It is simpleto click the print-view icon, but I found I could add an empty AutoOpen macro to the document file itself. This blocked the AutoOpen draft-view macro in the Normal template and let the menu page disply in landscape print view, with five columns of links. But I had to save it as a macro-enabled file with docm. extension. It works, but Word says "macros disabled" (after it has already displayed the file in print view!). Would you know a better way to handle this?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-20T17:57:00+00:00

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments