Can you say more about outlines in older versions of word? I use Word2019 (local install) and it works for me. What am I missing?
Personally, I can't stand it. So I use either Word 97, which has everything I need and a nicely minimal UI, and uses the same file formats as Office into the 21st century, or Word 2003.
Example (old) screenshot:
https://imgur.com/gallery/word-97-word-2003-under-wine-on-ub...
Note that in 97 I've turned off everything. No ribbon, no ruler, no toolbars, just menus and scroll bars, and I normally turn off the horizontal scrollbar too.
In Word 2003 I've left some of the clutter turned on so you can see the difference: the ruler and one toolbar.
Word 97 can't handle big portrait screens, for instance.