Word will automatically populate a table of contents for any file. Here’s the easiest method:
Continue reading Create a Table of Contents in Word AutomaticallyTag Archives: productivity
Little-known Word Shortcuts
If you are using control + S to save like you’ve got a twitch (and what MS user hasn’t learned to save obsessively), you already know that shortcuts will save you a lot of time over using menus. Here are some surprising, lesser-known keyboard shortcuts that will speed up your productivity.
Continue reading Little-known Word ShortcutsDelete All Images from a Word Document
Images can be integral content in a manuscript: graphs convey huge volumes of data and information about their relationships; flowcharts relay sequences and relationships; pictures convey context and describe scenes. Images need to be seen while developing a manuscript or reviewing one, because they are so important. But images can also make files enormous to the point of crashing Word or email. Rather than deleting images one by one so that you can work with the file, delete them all at once with this simple Find and Replace in the Find/Navigation panel:
- In the Find field, select Graphic from the drop-down menu. Or, type the special code/regular expression ^g in directly.
- In the Replace with field, type nothing at all.
- Click Replace All.
You’re done! Now your file contains no images or graphs!
Insert Placeholders in That Click, Too
Instead of replacing images and graphs with nothing, you may want to write [image placed here] in the Replace field. These replacement words won’t say which image or graph appeared there in the manuscript, but it will alert you that one was present!
Troubleshooting
Save a backup of the original file.
Tables, shapes, and equations created in Word will remain in place. They are not treated as a graphic. “Smart Art” elements created in Word will be erased.
While working with embedded images can be helpful during the development process, the images in that docx are not likely to be good enough resolution for the designer to work with. Make sure you have a folder full of original images at high resolution (note that means at least 300 dpi for print and about 120 dpi for modern hi-res screens).
Got a gnarly Word problem? Submit your problem and we’ll try to answer it in the new Q&A thread.
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© This blog and all materials in it are copyright Adrienne Montgomerie on the date of publication. All rights reserved. No portion may be stored or distributed without express written permission. Asking is easy!
Google Docs, Meet Word
When editors work in Word, they have access to many customizable tools and advanced features that make their work more consistent and faster:
- Customizable and importable dictionaries
- Plug-ins
- Macros
- Styles
- Wildcards
- And every hack in the book
Import–Export Handshake
The good news is that Google Docs plays well with Word, now. The bad news is that this requires you to (and only works if you do) export the document into a Word file, work on it, and then re-upload it to Google Docs when you are done.
I’ve let a couple of my editing students use it (for reasons) and am thrilled to find that Google Docs now produces great markup of the Tracked Changes and Comments when it makes a Word file. It also maintains my markup and comments from Word when I reupload it to Google Docs!
I still do better, faster editing work by using all my macros, plug-ins, and dozens of other customized tools in Word, so this compatibility is very hopeful news.
Markup Using Google Docs
The Suggesting feature in Google Docs marks up text much like Word does with Track Changes and Comments. The reason you want to use this is not only so that the changes stand out for review and can be easily accepted or rejected and so that comments are easy to find. More importantly, by leaving “suggestions” and tracked changes, you avoid having your comments and other infelicities end up in the final product because someone missed deleting them! This has happened many times and it is always an enormous embarrassment as it’s shared widely across the internet.
In Google Docs, click on the speech bubble icon at the top right of the screen. This opens the small menu shown in the image below. Click the Suggesting option to turn on the tracking mode. Then, type additions and delete text without further concern—they will be tracked. Add comments by clicking the speech bubble icon with the plus—the one just to the left of the pop-down menu in the example below.
Troubleshooting
Do not let the writer keep working on the Google Doc while you are editing in Word. These are now two separate versions of the file—the on in GDocs and yours in Word—and their changes will not be incorporated into your edits. You’ll be uploading a new version, separately, since you can’t upload–convert into an existing Google Doc. Ideally, you will lock the old Google Doc from further changes.
At minimum, add in a very large, colourful font at the top of the original Google Doc reading: DEAD FILE. Changing the colour and font family of the body content would also give visual signals that it is not the file to work on. Also change the doc’s name to include the words dead file.
While you might be frustrated by the seemingly endless updates (changes) to Microsoft products, Google Docs updates even more often. So what I say here may be out of date by the time you read it. So far, Google Docs keeps getting better and more functional. So let’s hope that’s what you find.
Styles and internal cross-references do not get carried over elegantly from Word to Google Docs. Just be aware of this, and plan on fixing the flubs in production/layout.
Erin Brenner of Right Touch Editing recently described her method of editing in Google Docs and limiting the pitfalls of working in a live document within GDocs, separate from Word. Check out her advice.
Got a gnarly Word problem? Submit your problem and we’ll try to answer it in the new Q&A thread.
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© This blog and all materials in it are copyright Adrienne Montgomerie on the date of publication. All rights reserved. No portion may be stored or distributed without express written permission. Asking is easy!
Delivery image modified from original base image by mohamed Hassan on Pixabay.
This PDF Hack Accesses Your Word Wizardry
Missing all your Word tools because you’ve got a PDF to mark up? Never fear!
Open Word, then tell Word to open the PDF file. It’s that simple. Word will import all of the text and graphics so you can access your macros, plug-ins, and other secret Word weapons to proofread the content. No need to pay for any third-party translation or shell out for Acrobat Pro! Word has you covered.
Any changes will have to be transcribed onto the PDF, not simply tracked in the Word file; but that’s easy. This quick tutorial shows how to leave professional proofreading markup using the industry standard free software: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Troubleshooting
Bad breaks or false ones may occur at the bottom of pages where footers including folios are set in text boxes. Some body text and captions may also appear in text boxes. Be sure Word is including such text in any checks, and be prepared to excuse layout weirdness. You’ll have to check design elements on the PDF itself.
If there’s any markup on the PDF, Word will try to replicate it, too. Just be aware of it so you can ignore those sections.
Got a gnarly Word problem? Submit your problem and we’ll try to answer it in the new Q&A thread.
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© This blog and all materials in it are copyright Adrienne Montgomerie on the date of publication. All rights reserved. No portion may be stored or distributed without express written permission. Asking is easy!
Q&A: Easy selecting in tables, 5 ways
Q Is there a sure-fire way to select just the content of a table cell, or a single cell vs the whole table? Word seems to have its own views on what I should be selecting.
A Arrow keys are the most precise way to select text or cells (even rows and columns) in a table, but double-clicks and triple clicks are great shortcuts:
- Shift + arrow selects individual characters until it reaches the end of a cell, then it switches to selecting whole cells.
- Double-click the mouse to select a single word.
- Triple-click the mouse to select a whole cell.
The (table) Layout ribbon offers some selection options. Click the Select icon on the far left. This is great when your hand isn’t feeling steady enough to activate the selection arrow by hovering at the top or left side of the table column/row, or when Word is having a tantrum. Just make sure the cursor is already placed in a cell within the column/table you want to select.
Troubleshooting
To reveal the (table) Layout ribbon, place the cursor in the table. If the ribbon does not appear, you’re not working in a true table. Reveal hidden characters and you’ll likely find that the alignment was forced (faked) with spaces and tab marks. Undo that shit.
If the content you want to select is at the end of a cell, it can be nearly impossible to select just that bit rather than the entire cell. Add a character (say, a period), then select up to that point (which will no longer be the end of the cell). Remember to delete that extraneous mark afterward!
To make sure you’ve selected an entire row (and not just the cells), look for the row end marker selection. See this in action in the demo video below at about minute 1:08.
Got a gnarly Word problem? Submit your problem and we’ll try to answer it in the new Q&A thread.
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© This blog and all materials in it are copyright Adrienne Montgomerie on the date of publication. All rights reserved. No portion may be stored or distributed without express written permission. Asking is easy!
Q&A: Word won’t suggest the correct spelling!
QWhen running a full Spellcheck, Word won’t suggest the right word. What can I do besides writing down the misspelling and searching it out later to correct it manually?
AYou’re in luck! Just click in the document itself and make the change (Fig. 1), then return to the Spellcheck (now called Editor) window and resume. See details and demo video below.
Mac users have the additional option of clicking in the Spellcheck window where the problem is shown (Fig. 2), and typing the correction there. Then click Resume in the Spellcheck window and carry on with the spelling check.
Got a gnarly Word problem? Submit your problem and we’ll try to answer it in the new Q&A thread.
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© This blog and all materials in it are copyright Adrienne Montgomerie on the date of publication. All rights reserved. No portion may be stored or distributed without express written permission. Asking is easy!
Tracking Moved Text
The problem is that this function is glitchy in Word. Sometimes you just can’t get the text to be marked as “moved.” After checking that the Preferences for Track Changes (see figure below) are indeed set to mark moves, try these two solutions:
- Make sure to select the entire sentence right up to the terminal punctuation. Then drag it with a mouse/pointer/whathaveyou.
- After selecting the text that you want to move, use this keyboard shortcut to move the text up or down a whole paragraph at a time:
Mac: ctrl + shift + up arrow
Windows: alt + shift + up arrow
Troubleshooting
‘Move’ tracking doesn’t work for a phrase or just part of the sentence, it has to include the terminal punctuation. You could hack this by adding terminal punctuation, moving the phrase, and then deleting the punctuation. Just be sure to do the adding and removing of punctuation without tracking or it will look very confusing and sloppy.
This is a newer function that may not work on doc files, so make sure they’re saved as docx.
If it just. won’t. cooperate. Leave a comment explaining the move, with or without tracking, based on the needs of your writer.
Got a gnarly Word problem? Submit your problem and we’ll try to answer it in the new Q&A thread.
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© This blog and all materials in it are copyright Adrienne Montgomerie on the date of publication. All rights reserved. No portion may be stored or distributed without express written permission. Asking is easy!
Pro Tip: Identifying Dashes
The difference between – and — is one of those dog-whistle edits that people in the know find make a document elegant versus incorrect, and literally nobody else even notices in the slightest. One of the challenges in using dashes correctly is simply seeing which one is in use: en or em length. In some font families, the dashes are nearly identical length! While editing, you can make this blazingly obvious by colour coding the various dashes so they stand out while you work. At the end, simply remove all highlighting.
How to Colour Code Dashes in a Manuscript
- Turn off Track Changes. You’re going to undo this highlighting later, so there’s no need to bog down the file by tracking this.
- Select the teal* highlight tool on the Home ribbon (Fig. 1), or by selecting it from the pop-up when you right-click on a Windows computer.
- Using Advanced Find and Replace, search for a hyphen (just type a hyphen in the Find field).
- In the Replace field, type a hyphen again, then from the Format menu in the More options, click Highlight (Fig. 2 below). Word applies the highlight colour that was selected in Step 2.
- Click Replace All.
- Close F&R and start over at Step 2, this time selecting green, then search and replace for an en dash in Steps 3 and 4 (Fig. 3).
- Repeat with violet for the em dash.
Proceed with your edit as usual. Then, at the end, select all and set Highlighting to No Color. (See Troubleshooting below.)
*The colour of highlighting you choose for each doesn’t really matter; that can be your choice. What matters is that they are different colours from each other and that they are different from any other highlighting you use to colour-code your manuscript. That way you can remove highlighting from these characters later without removing highlighting you want to keep.
Side-by-side, it’s easy to tell the various dashes apart, but the highlighting will help you identify them without effort when they appear alone.
Of course, you could put this in a macro that runs at the beginning of your edit along with removing double spaces, setting the language, the zoom, etc. For instructions on how to do that, look inside the book.
Pro-pro Tip: Add this sequence to your start-up macro and it will happen automatically every time.
Troubleshooting
If there is highlighting in your document that you need to preserve — such as highlighting instructions to production about inserts or special characters — do not remove all highlighting at the end by setting the whole document to Highlight > No Color. Instead repeat Step 2, selecting No Color for the highlight, then do Steps 3 to 7 to remove highlighting from just the dashes and hyphens.
Got a gnarly Word problem? Submit your problem and we’ll try to answer it in the new Q&A thread.
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© This blog and all materials in it are copyright Adrienne Montgomerie on the date of publication. All rights reserved. No portion may be stored or distributed without express written permission. Asking is easy!
Working With Tables: The Ruler
Previous posts showed you how to align table cells and numbers in columns using the ruler. It’s also possible to set margins, an indent, a hanging indent, and more on the ruler! Watch the demo at the end to see how, or just drag the related element where you want it.
a. the waffle marking the gutter or edge of a column,
b. the left margin for the second (and subsequent) lines,
c. the left margin,
d. the first line left indent,
e. a tab (left) mark, and
f. the right margin.
To remove tab marks, just pull them off the ruler.
Note you want to do this for all affected lines at once; select the lines in the document before changing the ruler.
Troubleshooting
Can’t see the ruler? Select it in the Show group on the View ribbon.
If you can’t see the margin markers on the ruler, try Draft view and scroll wayyyyy over. Or, change which style that paragraph is in, then change it again (do not “undo”).
Moving the waffle that marks the column border changes only that column. The other columns stay as they were, so the right margin will get pushed around and may go outside of the page margins. Adjust all the columns until they sit right. (See also table resizing.)
Too many tab marks? Or, having trouble selecting them? Double-click on a tab mark to open the Tabs dialogue, then delete or change the tabs there.
Check out all the other posts in this series about Working with Tables and download your free multimedia ebook of them all!
Got a gnarly Word problem? Submit your problem and we’ll try to answer it in the new Q&A thread.
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By practicing one tip each week, you can invest 13 hours this year into professional development. To search the blog, use the orange bar right above this.
© This blog and all materials in it are copyright Adrienne Montgomerie on the date of publication. All rights reserved. No portion may be stored or distributed without express written permission. Asking is easy!