Gregg, have you tried
Scrivener?
If the way it handles your research and story outline works for you, then you may find that you stop using Word to enter the text completely.
Scrivener's got a very nice full screen uncluttered text entry view, and being a dedicated writer's toolkit it has the sort of features that you need readily available (e.g. storyboard, word count by scene, project and session targets, scene labelling - such as by POV character or location, compiling to different formats for drafts and final copies.)
Graham