Word – Page 3 – Tech Tools for Writers

Using Split Screen for Editing

Word and Scrivener’s split-screen functions are handy for editing long documents. At some point in the editing process, you may need to compare facts or details in one section of your book with facts and details in another section. Scrolling back and forth through pages and pages of writing can be frustrating, but with the split-screen function, you don’t have to.

Here’s how it works in Word and in Scrivener:

Split Screen in Word 2010

In the Home tab, go to View and in the Window area, click on the Split button.

Word split screen button — Access Word’s split screen in the View tab

A horizontal rule, or line, will show up across your document. Click anywhere in your document to anchor the rule. You can move the rule up or down at any time.

Note the horizontal rule in Word's split-screen view — Note the horizontal rule in Word’s split-screen view

In the split-screen view, the Split button has changed to the Remove Split button.To return to a single pane, go to View, Window area, Remove Split.

Split Screen in Scrivener

Click on the Horizontal Split button in the top right of Scrivener’s middle pane.

Horizontal split button — Scrivener split-screen view

The button will immediately change to the No Split button and Scrivener’s horizontal split- screen view looks like this:

Scrivener's split-screen view — Scrivener’s split-screen view

If you prefer to see your split screens side-by-side instead of stacked on top of one another, you can click on the Vertical Split button to the left of the Horizontal Split button.

Click on the No Split button to return to single-pane view.

The next time you’re working with a long document, and you’re having to check facts, cross-references, or even write a concluding paragraph, consider using the split-screen function in Word or Scrivener to make the job easier.

Image by Nina Matthews

A Quick Way to Apply Heading Styles in Word

Did you know that you can apply heading styles using keyboard shortcuts?

Doing so is much faster than digging around in menus to find the Styles menu or the Styles Palette. This trick is especially helpful for formatting ebooks. Here’s how it works in Word 2010:

Click in the heading you want to apply a style to, or select the heading:

Then choose from the following keystrokes:

Heading 1: Ctrl + Shift + 1
Heading 2: Ctrl + Shift + 2
Heading 3: Ctrl + Shift + 3

Get the idea?

If you’re on a Mac, try the Command + Opt key instead of the Ctrl + Shift.

Help for Your Version of Word

by C.K. MacLeod

There are many versions of Microsoft Word in use. What’s tricky is that one version of Word can be different from another version of Word. That can be a problem when you’re looking for Word help.

On this blog, I write about Word 2010 because it’s the version of Word I use. It’s also currently the most common version of Word used by editors (this will change as 2013 makes inroads).

Below is a quick list of free resources to help you get to know your version of Word better. This list will also help you to “step sideways” while reading Word tutorials based on a version of Word that’s different from yours.

Word Help

Most of the following links are from gcflearnfree.org—a terrific resource for Word tutorials.

Word 2013 (Windows & Mac*)
Word 2010 (Windows)
Word 2010 Quick Reference Card (Windows)
Word 2011 (Mac)
Word 2007 (Windows)
Word 2008 (Mac)
Word 2003 (Windows)
Word 2004 (Mac)
Word 2000 (Windows)

*These two versions of Word are now close, with some exceptions. If you don’t mind a fairly technical document, you can read about the differences here. The table containing keyboard shortcuts is particularly helpful.

Image by Forest Starr and Kim Starr

2 Tools for Improving Your Writing

by C.K. MacLeod

Updated. Originally posted at Beyond Paper Editing.

Learning to write well is a process, and there is so much to consider—from story structure to the words you choose.

In self-publishing circles, there is a lot of discussion about perfecting plot, characters, and dialogue—the elements of story—but comparatively little airtime is given to the building blocks of stories: words.

Sometimes, the words we use can clutter our writing and jolt the reader out of the story. Strunk & White calls these words “needless words.” That’s good news. If these words are needless, we don’t need them, and if your writing will be better without them, the solution is simple!

Needless Words

So, what are needless words? In a nutshell, any word that can be deleted without altering the meaning of a sentence or threatening correct grammatical construction is a needless word.

Strunk and White list some examples in the Omit Needless Words section of their famous style guide. Janice Hardy’s Words to Avoid list is another terrific resource for learning which words you can do without.

Hunting down needless words is an easy way to clean up your writing because it often requires nothing more from you than to find the offending words and press the delete button. Excise these words from your writing and you’re well on your way to communicating clearly.

Finding Needless Words

I know what you’re thinking… Do I have to pick through every word in my 300-page book? You can, but I’m not suggesting that you find needless words manually in a word-by-word manner. Oh, no. There are tools for that. Nowadays, simple tech tools can help you root out those words that muddy your writing.

Below, I’ve listed two tools that authors can use to polish their prose: one for Word users and the other for Scrivener users.

Word Tool

In Microsoft Word, you can use a simple highlighting macro that will hunt down and highlight all of the needless words in your book in a matter of minutes. I call it the Needless Words macro, in honour of Strunk & White. You can then decide how to address those highlighted words (delete them!).

NeedlessWords macro in action

You can find the Needless Words macro here.

Scrivener Tool

Scrivener’s Word Frequency tool is less sophisticated, but still worth a mention. It doesn’t highlight needless words, but it indicates words you may have overused. You can then use Scrivener’s Find and Replace function to find and scrutinize those words you’ve used most. In Scrivener, you can find the Word Frequency tool by going to Project, Text Statistics, Word Frequency.

Scrivener’s Text Statistics tool

Scrutinizing words is best left for the revision stage of writing, after the the big-picture elements and paragraph-level elements have been addressed. Taking the time to give your writing attention at the word level will ensure a smoother read for your readers.

Image by Matt Scott

3 Essential Tools for Publishing

By C. K. MacLeod

Self-publishing authors are doing everything that traditional publishers once did: writing, editing, and designing and formatting books. These tasks require authors to be more tech aware than ever before.

Tech tools can help with tasks once handled by traditional publishers. Below, I’ll share with you the three tech tools that I use for my self-publishing workflow.

Criteria for Choosing Tools

These are my criteria for choosing the tools I’ll use…

A tool must

have the right features for the task
make a task more efficient
be inexpensive, from a cost-per-use standpoint
not take too much time to learn (there is only so much time for steep learning curves when you’re a jack-of-all-trades)
have adequate support in the way of tutorials, videos, guides, forums, or someone to answer questions, if necessary

The tools I describe below meet all of these criteria.

Sure, it’d be wonderful if one tool could do it all, but I haven’t found that tool (let me know if you have). No tool is designed to do everything, and using some tools for editing, for example, is akin to using a spoon to dig a hole to plant a tree. The smartest thing you can do is choose the best tool for the job.

These three tools are the best tools for the jobs I do…

Scrivener

For writing book-length works, I haven’t found a tool that beats Scrivener. Scrivener shines in the way it allows writers to arrange and manipulate sections of a book. If you’re a plotter, panster or tweener, you can begin writing your book from the beginning or middle because you can arrange your book’s sections with ease later.

Scrivener will let you store your book alongside research notes and pictures, and it has nifty colour coded labels that can help you to indicate your progress on a section of writing. You can also set word count targets, which can help you reach your daily or weekly writing goals.

Scrivener Labels — Assign coloured labels to files in Scrivener

This handy sheet will get you started.

While Scrivener has track changes and comments features, it isn’t my favourite tool for editing my writing. As a professional editor, I know that there are ways to automate editing tasks, which helps with efficiency, but more importantly, helps me to catch errors I’d otherwise miss.

Microsoft Word / WPS Writer

My tool of choice for is Microsoft Word. Most professional editors , and with good reason. If Word isn’t in your budget, try (part of the WPS Office suite). The free version mirrors many of Word’s powerful features. Upgrading to the Pro version ($60) will allow you to run macros—tiny programs that automate hours-long editing tasks with a few clicks. If you can cut and paste, you can learn to use a macro. This will teach you how.

For the record: while I do everything to make my writing as polished as it can be, I know that I’m not the best person to copyedit my own writing. I have my editor do that. If you hire a copyeditor, your copyeditor will most likely work in Word (and if she doesn’t, and she charges by the hour, you may pay more for editing than you should).

Jutoh

After the editing stage, you’ll likely format your book for e-reading devices. Word is notoriously finicky for formatting ebooks, and Scrivener creates ebook files with unsightly gaps between words. So, while you can format ebooks with Scrivener or Word, they aren’t the best tools for the job.

To format ebooks, I prefer for a more reliable outcome. You can export an edited Word document into Jutoh easily, and if you’ve had the foresight to style your paragraphs and headings in Word, those styles will transfer, too. Jutoh will then create an epub or a mobi.

Having the right tools for the right tasks will help you produce better books, faster. While the tools I recommend aren’t the only tools to get the job done, they are the best tools I’ve found to date.

Image by Hubert Figuière

Most Popular Tech Posts of 2014

by C.K. MacLeod

Here are the top 10 Posts on Tech Tools for Writers in 2014.

Which tool will you try in 2015?

Image by Sam Churchill.

New Tool for Writing and Editing: WPS Writer

by C.K. MacLeod

Are you unhappy that Microsoft Word 2013 is available only through subscription? Consider this alternative: WPS Writer* (formerly Kingsoft Office).

A New Tool for Editing?

Until now, Microsoft Word has been the best tool for editing, but I’d like to suggest that WPS Writer is a close contender. The lite version is free and loaded with features, and it’s part of an office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet program, and presentation software (also free). The Office Suite Pro version is reasonably priced at $69.95 USD, and it has some additional features—including the ability to run macros—that you’ll want for your self-editing toolkit.

If you’re happy to forego using macros in your writing process, the lite version will provide you with most of the writing and self-editing features you’ll need. Don’t hold out on macros for too long, though. Macros can help you to pinpoint difficulties in your writing, so you can fix them.

Tablet App

WPS Writer is also available for iOS and Android tablets (free)—for authors who like to edit on-the-go. If you use Dropbox to store your files, moving back and forth between the desktop app and the tablet app is relatively seamless.

WPS Writer and Word: A Comparison

Below is a table that compares Word 2010—the last non-subscription version of Word—with WPS Writer. I’ve listed all of the features typically used by authors and editors. If I’ve missed a feature, be sure to let me know in the comments below.

Note: The table was created in WPS Writer using Table tools.

WPS Writer also comes with a . Pretty impressive, huh? So if you haven’t been one of the lucky editor-sorts to scoop up one of the remaining copies of Word 2010, WPS Writer may well be worth a look.

A special thank you to Adam Santo for inspiring me to look into this software further.

*For those who are curious: WPS stands for Writer, Presentation, and Spreadsheets—the three components of WPS Office.

Are you a technical writer? Check out Ferry Vermeulen’s technical writing tools picks in Technical Writing Tools: The Ultimate Choice of 83 Experts.

Image by Harald Hoyer

Showing vs. Telling Macro

by @CKMacLeod

Most writers are familiar with the adage, show, don’t tell. But sometimes it’s tricky to determine when those telling instances have crept into your writing.

Editor Janice Hardy of Fiction University explains how telling happens and offers advice for how to turn telling into showing. She and Valerie Comer of To Write a Story suggest lists of words you should avoid to prevent instances of telling.

I’ve inserted some of Valerie Comer’s and Janice Hardy’s telling words into the macro script below so you can identify them in your own writing. I’ve also included some words of my own.

Loch Ness telling sample — TellingWords in action; writing sample by Carla Douglas, used with permission

Copy the TellingWords* macro, below, from Sub to End Sub and paste it into Word’s Visual Basic Application (VBA). When you run the macro, it will hunt down and highlight those telling words so you can tell them, I mean, show them who’s boss.

Sub TellingWords()
‘ Highlights telling words
‘
‘
‘ Written by Roger Mortis, revised by Subcortical, adapted by Jami Gold and tweaked by C.K. MacLeod; word list by Valerie Comer and Janice Hardy
‘
Dim range As range
Dim i As Long
Dim TargetList
TargetList = Array(“was”, “were”, “when”, “as”, “the sound of”, “could see”, “saw”, “notice”, “noticed”, “noticing”, “consider”, “considered”, “considering”, “smell”, “smelled”, “heard”, “felt”, “tasted”, “knew”, “realize”, “realized”, “realizing”, “think”, “thought”, “thinking”, “believe”, “believed”, “believing”, “wonder”, “wondered”, “wondering”, “recognize”, “recognized”, “recognizing”, “hope”, “hoped”, “hoping”, “supposed”, “pray”, “prayed”, “praying”, “angrily”)

For i = 0 To UBound(TargetList)

Set range = ActiveDocument.range
With range.Find
.Text = TargetList(i)
.Format = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = True
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
Do While .Execute(Forward:=True) = True
range.HighlightColorIndex = wdPink
Loop
End With
Next
End Sub

Note: You need to use judgement with the results of any macro. This macro will highlight the telling words, but only you can decide if it’s an instance of telling.

To figure out what to do with the words the macro highlights, refer to Janice Hardy’s excellent show vs. tell posts. Also, this macro is a work in progress. Are there words I should include? Omit? Let me know in the comments section below.

Not sure what a macro is? See this post for an explanation. See also the videos for adding a macro and running a macro in Microsoft Word 2010.

What do you do with the highlighted words this macro finds? See Carla Douglas’ post at the Beyond Paper Editing blog for suggestions.

Image by Pete

*Karen Woodward calls this macro the AddWords macro because you can add any list of words that you want the macro to find. The first version of this macro was written by Roger Mortis, revised by Subcortical, appropriated for writing by Karen Woodward, tweaked byJami Gold, and further tweaked by me, making it a true community effort.

How to Format an Ebook the Simple Way

by C. K. MacLeod

@CKmacleodwriter

One of the easiest ways to format an ebook is to begin with the tool you probably already have—Microsoft Word.

I know, I know. HTML & CSS enthusiasts and InDesign evangelists everywhere have just engaged in a collective shudder.

But hear me out. Not all self-pubs have access to expensive design software or the time or interest for the required learning curve. Many of them do have access to Microsoft Word, though. Why not begin where they’re at? That’s what Joel Friedlander and Aaron Shepard have done. You’re welcome to take it up with them. wink

So, having gotten that out of the way, if your manuscript is in Microsoft Word, there are several things you can do to ensure a smoother transition from Word to ebook. Your first step is to clean up your book in Word. Here’s what you need to do:

Quick-Steps

Remove headers, footers, and page numbers.
Remove underlining in headings.
Remove footnotes.
Remove two spaces after end punctuation.
Remove manual tabs and spaces.
Remove text boxes.
Remove tables formatted in Word. Reinsert them as images instead.
Avoid using the list buttons on the ribbon to create bulleted and numbered lists.
Choose photos over clip-art.
Decide if you need an index.
Use italics to emphasize words—but sparingly.

Ebooks Made Easy: Word to Jutoh in 10 Steps

by C.K. MacLeod

Updated. Originally posted at Beyond Paper Editing.

Have you discovered Jutoh? Jutoh is an elegant and inexpensive piece of software ($39 USD) that allows you to convert Word docx files or ODT files to epub and mobi ebook formats.

Jutoh will work for fiction that’s mostly straight text, but it will also handle nonfiction texts with

pictures
headings
bulleted and numbered lists, and
internal and external hyperlinks

Word to Jutoh Workflow

Below is my Word-to-Jutoh workflow. Unless otherwise stated, I perform most of these steps in Word 2010.

1. Tag any special formatting that you’d like to retain, such as headings, italicized and boldface words, and hyperlinks. JW Manus suggests a system for tagging special formatting. Use what works for you. The idea is that you want to be able to search and replace for these items later.

2. Nuke your Word doc. Word is infamous for creating formatting gremlins that can show up in your ebook. Zap ’em. Copy your entire book into Notepad (comes with Windows) or another text editor and paste it into a brand new Word document. I then execute a Clear All from the Word Styles menu for good measure.

A bit much? Maybe. But I’ve noticed that a nuke doesn’t always remove hidden fonts. How do I know? CrossEyes (free for PC users) helps me to see what lies beneath…

3. Clean up any extra uses of the space bar and Enter key, such as extra spaces between words and after end punctuation, or extra paragraph spaces. Clean up tabs, too. You can use a copyeditor’s trick and do this automatically by using tools like the Editorium’s File Cleaner or the Wiley Publishing Cleanup Tool (free). You can also use Word’s Find and Replace feature to clean up extra tabs and spaces.

4. Set heading and paragraph styles in Word. If you want to use an indented paragraph style, be sure to set your indents in your paragraph style. Use fonts that are ebook-friendly and copyright free. Times New Roman is always a safe bet. Remember, readers can adjust fonts on their e-readers—you want to choose a font that plays nicely with conversion software.

5. Resize images in an image editor. I use Paint.NET, but GIMP is another good free option. Check your distributor (Amazonor Lulu, for example) for image width and height restrictions.

6. Insert images into your Word file (Insert, Image). Images can really increase your file size so you may need to compress them. You can compress them in your image editor by setting the image quality to 75%.

7. Insert external, or off-book hyperlinks where you’ve tagged them. Shorten links using a link shortening service, like bit.ly or Pretty Link. Shortened links have a better chance of surviving your chosen distributor’s converter.

8. Address any cross-references, or internal hyperlinks in your book using Word’s bookmark feature. If you forget to do this in Word, you can use Jutoh’s indexing feature.

9. Page through your document with with the Show/Hide feature activated (Pilcrow). Look for any extra spaces you may have missed (or re-introduced—it happens).

10. Export your file to Jutoh. If you’ve carefully formatted your document in Word, your file will export almost seamlessly, with styles, images, and hyperlinks attached. Tip: some font styles won’t export. If you use the ebook-friendly fonts recommended by the Jutoh manual, your fonts will transfer over.

Jutoh is designed to play nicely with Word. If you follow good ebook formatting practices in Word, your book file will convert seamlessly.