My problem straddles Windows and Mac OS but I think it is more appropriate her than elsewhere.
We have a Microsoft 365 Family subscription, which I use on my MacBook (Catalina) and my husband (Paul) uses on a Windows 10 laptop.
He dislikes computers and only uses them because they are unavoidable. He uses only Word and the internet for finding information. He doesn’t do email and doesn’t buy things online. As for Word, he uses it in the most basic way imaginable. (He is, I hasten to say, extremely capable in many other ways; it’s just electronic and digital things he finds so alien)
I, on the other hand, love my computer and constantly strive to learn how to do more and more, especially with Word (mainly onscreen editing and the like).
One of the reasons I bought the Microsoft 365 was that I thought it would make my life easier as Paul’s onsite techie helper. I assumed that the same version of Word would look the same on my Mac and his PC. But they certainly do not.
If I remember correctly, I spent quite a long time finding out how to make Word on my computer look how I wanted it to – see first screenshot:
I have fairly recently learnt to make use of the Home Insert Draw Design [etc] toolbar, as well as the classic File Edit View Insert [etc] one I have used for many years, and now make use of both.
But with my husband’s PC I cannot find any way of making the Word screen look like this.
It actually looks like second screenshot.
Is there actually any way I can make the PC Word look like it does on my Mac? When Paul asks me to help him – if, for example, the line spacing has done something funny – I really struggle to work out what has happened and remedy things. On my own computer I can almost invariably diagnose the cause of a problem and put it right.
Before I bought 365, I was using Word for Mac 2011 and Paul was using Word 2003. I was unfamiliar with Windows 10, but at least I had used Word 2003 myself on Windows XP before I changed to Apple computers
When I bought 365, I thought Paul and I would be using the same word-processing program even if our operating systems were different, but I still seem to have to contend with two different programs. I had to learn a lot when I moved from Word for Mac 2011 to 365, but it seems I need to learn yet more for the PC version.
Am I stuck with this situation or can I make the user interface on Paul’s computer the same as on mine?