Jun 10 2019 09:33 AM
Microsoft Edge’s reading view experience is designed to let you read web content without any extraneous information or anything jarring that strain your eyes. Reading is
one of the primary activities that people do on the web. In most cases, it is hindered by ads and other irrelevant content that can be distracting. Reading view solves this problem by transforming the page completely to offer an immersive reading experience to people while consuming content on the web.
How to enter Reading View
Reading view can be accessed for most of the websites that have a lot of content to read. Some categories of such websites are news, articles, blogs, stories etc. To enter reading view, you can go on any of the websites that fall in the above categories and check out for a book shaped icon () in the top right corner of the address bar (as seen in the screenshot below). Reading view currently works for Windows, macOS and Edge on Android.
Reading View entry point on desktop
Reading View entry point on Android
Reading View experience
Once you enter Reading view, you will see the page transformed into a cleaner layout that has been optimized for efficient reading. The background theme, the fonts, line spacing, number of words per line etc. have been adjusted for a favorable reading experience. Apart from a distraction free and clean layout, research suggests that these changes help improve comprehension, concentration, and speed. See the images below on how it transforms the page.
Reading View experience on desktop
Reading View Experience on Android
At the same time, we have changed the layout from the previous version to a vertical one on desktops since it was one of the most requested changes by the users. We are working on the reading bar that can be used for customizing the background themes and font sizes and you will be able to access those features soon.
To exit, click the same icon and seamlessly get back to the original webpage.
Grammar tools:
To assist users with reading comprehension, reading view offers Grammar tools built right into the experience.
Click on the Grammar tools option on the toolbar and turn on parts of speech. This will highlight the text in reading view with colors associated with Nouns, Verbs or Adjectives.
To get assistance in pronunciations, you can turn on the " Syl•la•bles” option to see text broken down into chunks that make correct sounds for that language.
Grammar tools may not be available in your version of Edge yet. You can either wait for the version of Edge with Grammar tools in reading view or you can enable the following flag by going to edge://flags and enabling the Grammar tools item there.
Directly opening Reading View from bookmarks
You can also easily bookmark your favorite articles and open directly in reading view. As you can see, the URLs of all pages in reading view start with “read:” and hence can be uniquely identified. So, any webpage that is saved on your device or shared to friends will be automatically navigated to reading view for an engaged reading.
What do you think?
We’d appreciate if you can give reading view a try and let us know if you run into issues or have new ideas for the reading view functionality. Also, do comment on the layout of the experience and tell us if you want to see reading view on websites where we do not support currently. We would love to hear back from you. Click on the send feedback button and drop us a note.
Jun 16 2019 06:04 AM
@Elliot Kirk I use reading view a lot, mostly on technical/legal websites were articles are long. Your post mentions customization tools coming in future iterations.
A customization tool that I would like to see is a tool giving users the option to (1) set the background color to either beige or white, (2) set the typeface to serif or sans-serif, and (3) adjust font size. This isn't just a whim on my part. I'm in my 70's, and and for those of us with aging eyes, these customization options would increase usability.
Compare/contrast the two screens below:
Jun 16 2019 03:40 PM
Jun 16 2019 06:23 PM - edited Jun 16 2019 10:01 PM
There are a bunch of features and tools in the Edge version of RV including, ones you mention. We are all anxiously awaiting them in the Edge C version. We have been told all will be there by the time Edge C becomes our default browser.
And here is a wee tip for you. In your Win10 > Settings > Ease of access. There you find a slider which will change/ set just only the text size. Try it, you will like it :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Cheers,
Drew
Jun 16 2019 07:00 PM - edited Jun 17 2019 04:15 AM
"There are a bunch of features and tools in the Edge version of RV including, ones you mention."
I've set my Edge (Classic) Reading View to a white background and a slightly larger text size for years. Edge (Classic) does not offer users the option to switch from serif to sans-serif.
"We are all anxiously awaiting them in the Edge C version. We have been told all will be there by the time Edge C becomes our default browser."
I guess that I missed the announcement telling us that "all will be there by the time Edge C becomes our default browser". Elliot doesn't mention it in the article, and I've not seen anything else confirming that the release version will allow users to (a) change background color, (b) adjust font size, and (c) choose between serif and sans-serif. Can you give me a link or a quote? I'm particularly interested in the serif/sans-serif option.
"And here is a wee tip for you. In your Win10 > Settings > Ease of access. There you find a slider which will change/ set just only the text size. Try again, you will like it."
The slider changes font size in Windows menus, but does not change font size in Reading View.
As you no doubt know, another Ease of Access setting allows users to set text size from 100% to 125% and larger, but that affects everything in Windows, including the browser, window layouts and so on.
Neither fit the bill. But thanks for the comment.
EDIT: The author of the quoted comment edited the comment several hours after this comment was made, quoting the initial comment by that author. The following line was edited by the author of that post:
Original: "Try again, you will like it :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:"
Edited: "Try it, you will like it :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:"
Jun 16 2019 10:04 PM
@scrbl
Supposedly, that is what we are getting by the time of release. :crossed_fingers:
Cheers,
Drew
Jun 16 2019 10:36 PM - edited Jun 16 2019 10:41 PM
@tomscharbach
Yes, you got me... I should not have implied ALL mentioned features; no, cannot pick font type. Can pick page background shade, light to dark.
It was here in this Forum not long ago that someone from Edge said the stuff everyone was saying, "Hey, where is it?!" would be in RV by release time & we'd start seeing some feature/tools as time went along. No, link... I have a hard enough time finding exchanges in here at the best of times 🤨.
I wish you'd quoted me after the correction was made ;) My mobile must have said something I hadn't noticed.
Yes, that's why the was a lot of happiness when only just the text size could be affected. And not everything.
As can be seen, I have the text slightly enlarged. Windows, et al are not.
BTW, in case think otherwise, I am not arguing... in case the typing sounds like it.
Cheers,
Drew
Jun 17 2019 12:14 AM
Jun 17 2019 04:27 AM
@Drew1903 "I wish you'd quoted me after the correction was made ;) My mobile must have said something I hadn't noticed."
I wish so, too. I prefer my quotes to be entirely accurate. However, your edits came several hours after I commented, so all I can do is correct the record in my comment.
I did a line-by-line comparison of your comment as it has been edited through this morning (see attached screenshot). In the line-by-line, "E" = Drew's edited version, "Q" = my quoted version. I found only one difference, in the very last line of your comment:
E: There are a bunch of features and tools in the Edge version of RV including, ones you mention.
Q: There are a bunch of features and tools in the Edge version of RV including, ones you mention.
E: We are all anxiously awaiting them in the Edge C version.
Q: We are all anxiously awaiting them in the Edge C version.
E: We have been told all will be there by the time Edge C becomes our default browser.
Q: We have been told all will be there by the time Edge C becomes our default browser.
E: And here is a wee tip for you.
Q: And here is a wee tip for you.
E: In your Win10 > Settings > Ease of access.
Q: In your Win10 > Settings > Ease of access.
E: There you find a slider which will change/ set just only the text size.
Q: There you find a slider which will change/ set just only the text size.
E: Try it, you will like it :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Q: Try again, you will like it :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:
I don't see that the difference is substantive, but I've changed the quote in my comment to note the edit.
Thanks for pointing out the issue. I prefer to quote accurately when I quote.
If you make further edits, please let my know, and I will note the changes, as appropriate, in my comment.
Jun 17 2019 10:42 AM
@tomscharbach
You sound like I was offended. I wasn't. Only said it because "try again" made no sense.
Keep smiling :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Cheers,
Drew
Jun 17 2019 10:45 AM - edited Jun 17 2019 09:10 PM
You're very welcome! So glad I was able to help. Yes, I, too like it that we can now colour the pointer; that is new to 1903. As is enlarging text only. I trust you hit "Liked"
Cheers,
Drew
Jun 19 2019 12:41 PM
@Elliot Kirk I've been dipping in and out of the Edge Chromium Dev build, and am actually almost ready to use it as my full-time browser for personal and work (which I imagine would be helpful for collecting performance reports, bug reports, etc.?), except for one feature: Printing from Reading Mode.
Printing to PDF from reading mode is a big part of my daily workflow. I've been really pleased with the fact that the Edge team has been working on and steadily improving the reading mode experience (to the point that it has apparently been turned on by default now, rather than needing to go into flags to activate it). However, when I try to print anything to PDF from reading mode, it only prints a single page's worth of the page/document.
I know it's not a typical use-case, but if this ends up being something you address in the near future, you'll gain at least one more full-time guinea pig.
Jun 19 2019 04:54 PM - edited Jun 19 2019 04:55 PM
@rjbwdc
The "Articles" replies do name Elliot and even though I am not he I will be bold enough to offer you an answer.
Printing from RV to PDF is something oft used & very cool. And normally, certainly prints full content. Anyway, in the Edge C version of RV, currently the Features & Tools of RV are absent. However, the understanding is that they will be appearing. And, we are told, they will all be there by the time Edge C is our default browser, by the time of its release (non-beta).
So, with patience, apparently, allegedly, it is all coming (soon).
Cheers,
Drew
Jun 19 2019 08:19 PM
@rjbwdc, I just checked and we are tracking a bug on this issue. Thank you for taking the time to offer us this feedback, and I will keep you to your promise on the guinea pig thing when we fix this bug.
Jun 19 2019 08:26 PM
Jun 22 2019 09:47 PM
Jun 23 2019 04:05 AM
@Elliot Kirk I'm also not able to see the smileys...
Jun 25 2019 11:23 AM
@Elliot Kirk I like it, but would be nice if it respected Windows dark mode.
Jun 25 2019 12:13 PM
@bar10dr
It's not quite that... RV has 3 page shades available (white, grey & Dark) except...
The RV they have given in Edge C, right now, has none of its Tools & Features. We have been told they are coming and will all be there by the time Edge C is our default browser.
Cheers,
Drew
Jun 26 2019 03:01 AM
Hi @alex_17
This is a good catch. We have filed a bug and will resolve it shortly.