Tag: editing tools

Using ProWritingAid to Become a Better Writer

ProWritingAid_-_Writing_Improvement_&_Editing_Software_-_2015-09-08_09.06.51In this snippet of overheard conversation, the Mentor runs the Student Writer through the process of using ProWritingAid, one of many editing software programs available on the market. As with all these programs, the Student Writer finds the process tedious and repetitive, but the Mentor draws his attention to how much his writing will be improved by the end of the process. Let’s listen as the Mentor starts off…

…okay. You’re going to try ProWritingAid. Let’s upload the first chapter of the Great Canadian Novel and see what the computer has to say about it. Continue reading “Using ProWritingAid to Become a Better Writer”

How Using Compare in Microsoft Word Can Save Your Manuscript (and Sanity)

Microsoft Word LogoHas this ever happened to you? You’re about a hundred pages deep into editing your manuscript, changing a phrase here and adding a scene there – and then you run across a paragraph that you’re sure you deleted in the last go-round. And then you realize why it’s still there: you’re not working in the most recent version of your file.

You might think your options are limited at this point to: a) pulling up the correct file, setting it side-by-side with the file you’re presently working in, and spending a couple of hours manually transferring all of today’s edits into the right file; b) chucking the computer out of the nearest window, or c) sobbing. But you have another, much more appealing option: you can use Microsoft Word’s Compare function. Continue reading “How Using Compare in Microsoft Word Can Save Your Manuscript (and Sanity)”

Working with Your Editor’s Edits in MS Word

Jacqueline HopkinsGuest Post
by Jacqueline Hopkins

You’re an author and you typed your manuscript in Microsoft Word. You’ve sent your work out to an editor. You get it back and it has different color text mixed in with your black words and colored text boxes in the far right margin. It’s a mess you can’t make heads nor tails of. You ask yourself, “What on earth has the editor done to my masterpiece?”

If your editor uses the latest version of the software, they will have used the ‘New Comments’ features and ‘Track Changes’ under the REVIEW tab to edit your work. If you are into self-editing your work before you send it off to an editor, you can turn track changes on and use it yourself. Just go to the menu bar, click on REVIEW, then click ‘track changes’ to turn it on, and clicking it again turns it off. When it is on, if you type a change it will appear in a different color. It also strikes through words you want to delete using the delete key.

Now, here is how to accept the editor’s changes, reject them, and get rid of all those comments boxes. Continue reading “Working with Your Editor’s Edits in MS Word”

Online Editing Tools: Can They Fix Your Grammarly?

Since half of writing is editing, there is a definite appeal to the idea of online tools that can help with the process. But no matter how good a computer algorithm is, it cannot write a novel. Call me master of the obvious, but based on anecdotes I have heard recently, the obvious needed to be stated. Apparently, some folks expect the sophistication of an online program to be on par with Jeopardy!’s Watson so they can sit back and drink margaritas while the program automatically fixes everything that doesn’t conform to the Chicago Manual of Style–and all for the low, low price of $29.95. Continue reading “Online Editing Tools: Can They Fix Your Grammarly?”