Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it was Office 2000 (maybe 2003), where we first saw Reading View appear as the default. I really wasn’t a fan of it then and this was one of the first settings I changed. Reading View made a return in Office 2013 Preview. I gave it a chance, but ultimately, I just couldn’t make it work for me. I even had a few discussion on twitter about it and others really liked it. Maybe, I’ll give it another try when I get a tablet, but for now, it’s got to go. Since there is a ton of settings, I thought I would share quickly how to turn this off if you don’t care for it. Once you are in Word, click on File –> Options. On the General tab, towards the bottom of the screen look under Start up options for the setting Open e-mail attachments and other uneditable files in reading view. Uncheck that box and you’re good to go.
It took me a second to find this setting even though it’s right there on the first tab. Now, my documents open in Print Layout as I prefer. :)