Category: Tutorials

How-to articles for writers.

Track Changes in MS Word

accept or reject pixabay button-32259_640I don’t know about you, but I hate it when Microsoft issues a new upgrade to its Office programs, especially Word. I like Word; I use it every day and I know where everything is and what it does. But nooooo, MS has to issue new upgrades so it’s NEW and IMPROVED. It’s like car companies that put out a new version of a car and they just have to put the gas tank on the left side instead of the right side, just so you know you’ve got the latest thing. Blurgh.

But I digress.

Because MS releases periodic upgrades to Word, we often need to update our tutorials, as well. Way back in 2013, Laurie Boris wrote an excellent one on how to use Word’s track changes using Word for a Mac. This tutorial will concentrate on Word for PC. Many things will be similar, but not all. Continue reading “Track Changes in MS Word”

Drop Caps and Quotation Marks: A Workaround

Fancy letter from PixabayFour years ago, I wrote a post titled “Drop Caps, Indents, and Other Formatting Tricks in Word.” Regarding drop caps, I mentioned that Word drops and enlarges the first character, which, if you’re writing dialogue, means it’s your quotation mark that gets dropped and enlarged instead of the first letter. Some authors and editors get around this issue by simply leaving off the opening quotation mark.

At the end of that discussion, I said: “There are those who believe leaving off the first quote mark is confusing to readers. Luckily, there’s a workaround in Word for those who want the quote mark, but it’s time consuming. More on that in a future post.”

I’m a little late with that future post (sorry, Anthony!). Truthfully, my workaround stopped working momentarily after a Word update, but it’s back now. It’s a wonky sort of workaround, but it does work. Continue reading “Drop Caps and Quotation Marks: A Workaround”

Draft2Digital’s Reading List Carousel: A Tutorial

Draft2Digital LogoYou may have recently received an email from Draft2Digital telling you that they’ve added a new marketing tool for authors. I’m always curious to try new marketing tools, so I decided to take a look.

I initially had a hard time finding where to go but, after a few tries, discovered that once signed in, you need to go to My Account and select Universal Book Links (see screenshot below). Continue reading “Draft2Digital’s Reading List Carousel: A Tutorial”

Making Your Book’s Description POP on Amazon

stand out book description lemon courtesy of pixabayIt’s tough enough to write an eye-catching blurb for your book on Amazon, especially so when you consider how many millions of books are there to compete with. It’s something we all struggle with, believe me. So how do we make our blurb pop? How do we draw eyes to it on our sales page?

A very quick and easy way, and a very effective way, is to use italics and/or bold in your book’s description. If you’ve published through KDP, I’m guessing your first reaction to this is, “Huh? There’s no option for that in KDP.”

You’re right; there’s not. Continue reading “Making Your Book’s Description POP on Amazon”