Reading long articles on the internet can be a frustrating experience. Between autoplaying video advertisements, newsletter pop-ups, cluttered sidebars, and confusing page layouts, finding the actual text you want to read is often difficult. Microsoft Edge includes a built-in feature called Immersive Reader designed specifically to solve this problem.
When activated, Immersive Reader strips away all the visual clutter from a webpage, leaving only the primary text and essential images in a clean, highly customisable, book-like format. It also includes powerful accessibility tools, such as the ability to read the text aloud.
How to Activate Immersive Reader
You can activate the feature on almost any news article, blog post, or long-form text page.
- Open Microsoft Edge and navigate to an article you want to read.
- Look at the address bar (where the URL is displayed).
- On the right side of the address bar, look for an icon that resembles an open book with a small speaker over it. This is the Enter Immersive Reader button.
- Click the icon (or press F9 on your keyboard).
The webpage will instantly transform. The background will change to a solid colour, advertisements will vanish, and the text will be enlarged and centred.
Note: If the book icon does not appear in the address bar, Edge has determined that the page is not an article (e.g., a shopping checkout page or a search engine results page). You can force Immersive Reader by selecting the text you want to read, right-clicking it, and choosing Open in Immersive Reader.
Customising the Reading Experience
Once you are in Immersive Reader mode, a new toolbar will appear at the top of the screen just below the address bar. This allows you to tailor the visual presentation to your exact preferences.
Text Preferences
Click the Text preferences button to adjust how the words look.
- Text Size: Use the slider to increase or decrease the font size.
- Text Spacing: Toggle this on to increase the space between letters, words, and lines, which has been shown to improve reading speed for individuals with dyslexia.
- Page Theme: Change the background colour. While the default is an off-white “Sepia” tone designed to reduce eye strain, you can choose a dark mode theme or pick from over a dozen other colours.
Reading Preferences
Click the Reading preferences button for tools designed to help you focus.
- Line Focus: This feature highlights one, three, or five lines of text at a time while dimming the rest of the page. As you scroll down, the highlight moves with you, preventing you from losing your place on the screen.
- Picture Dictionary: When enabled, you can double-click on certain words to see a small illustration defining the word (e.g., double-clicking “bicycle” will show a drawing of a bike).
- Translate: Instantly translate the entire article into a different language without leaving the page.
Grammar Tools
Click the Grammar tools button (this may require a quick, automatic download the first time you use it).
This section is highly useful for students or individuals learning a new language. You can command Edge to visually highlight all the Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, or Adverbs in the text in different colours. You can also toggle Syllables, which splits complex words into smaller phonetic chunks (e.g., syl·la·bles) to aid pronunciation.
How to Use Read Aloud
If you prefer to listen to the article while doing something else, click the Read aloud button on the toolbar (or press Ctrl + Shift + U).
Edge will begin reading the text to you, highlighting each word as it is spoken. The read-aloud functionality in Edge is notable because it uses Microsoft’s advanced Neural Text-to-Speech voices, which sound incredibly natural and human-like compared to older, robotic screen readers.
A small playback bar will appear at the top of the screen where you can pause, skip paragraphs, and click Voice options to change the reading speed or select a different accent (e.g., switching from an American voice to a British voice).
To exit Immersive Reader and return to the normal webpage, simply click the book icon in the address bar again, or press F9.