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Resources for Writers—Microsoft Word

July 4, 2014 / Tools for Writers / 34 COMMENTS

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigblog1

Microsoft Word is an incredibly useful tool for writers—and one that I think is easy to overlook because we use it all the time.

Features that I use on a regular basis:

Highlighter.  I highlight problem areas that really don’t require explanation as I write my first draft.  This may be the fact that one of my characters doesn’t have a last name, or that a scene has gotten awkward or bogged down.  Maybe I don’t really even know what the problem is, but I want to highlight the area to figure out later.

Find/Replace:  This is very handy when I change character names in the middle of a manuscript. 

Find: I use the find feature to locate my favorite crutch words.  I tend to use just, some, and look a lot and want to find spots in my manuscript where I can remove the crutch word or maybe reword the sentence if needed.

Word’s Track Changes is a necessity when revising with an agent or editor and shows who made what changes or suggestions.  But I also use Track Changes during first drafts.  Instead of taking time looking up character details (are Lisa’s eyes green or blue?)  I add comments in the manuscript’s margins where I have a question.  Lately, I’ve been using the comments feature to change my outline, too.  More about that on Monday.  If you’re not sure how to use Track Changes, writer Jenny Hansen has a nice tutorial.

So…my uses have been fairly basic in the past.  But I’ve found some really interesting ways of using Word that other writers have employed.  Here are some of them:

Create a personalized AutoCorrect.  This one is from Hilary T. Smith.  Maybe you’ve got a character name that you always trip over when you’re typing.  You can program Word to automatically fill in the name whenever you type in a particular series of letters.

Combine different versions of a document (or incorporate beta reader changes and comments):  This helpful explanation is from Jami Gold. This is a helpful feature I’ve used several times when I’ve gotten changes from my editor and my beta reader and my agent.

  • Full screen lets me write and edit without distracting menus.
  • View “side by side” allows me to move back and forth between two documents because they both appear on the screen. Side by side. Go figure.
  • Full page: This option will show you a full document page on your screen. It’s not ideal for reading text, but it’s a great way to scan a document for blank pages, chapter lengths, and formatting errors.
  • The REVIEW tab also offers different view options. If you’re using TRACK CHANGES or COMMENTS in the document, you can choose to have them visible or not—which can make it a lot easier to read the text.

Create a Macro that helps you show instead of tell:  This is a really cool way to help tweak your story to make it stronger. Corina Koch MacLeod from the Tech Tools for Writers blog explains: 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.

Writer Karen Woodward created a similar macro for adverbs.

Auto-outline as you take your story on a tangent.  Writer Martina Boone shows writers how to set up Word to track important changes as you write.

Other helpful posts regarding MS Word:

Using breaks properly (from Jenny Hansen).

Creating manuscript templates in Word—here and here (Jenny Hansen again).

A great list of keyboard shortcuts to use in Word (again, from writer Jenny Hansen…who is also a corporate software trainer).

Don’t have Microsoft Word? Digital Trends posted an article in May 2014, “10 Great Microsoft Office Alternatives” for those who don’t have Office.

Do you use MS Word to write your manuscript?  How do you customize it for your own use?

And–Happy 4th of July to all my US readers!  Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday/long weekend.

  1. I dislike loaded word processors like Word, so I mostly use a series of other tools…

    However Word has something that NO other tool has — a really robust, and incredible, search and replace function. It even has a “wild card” function. (This is particularly useful if you have to process files that come from odd or unknown sources, but once you know how to do it, it’s surprising how often it comes in useful.)

    Learning to use the fancier search and replace functions does take some research and practice, though.

    1. Camille–Word and I have definitely had our falling-outs over the years. But…it’s still what I’m using every day. Probably the biggest problem was when I sent a document to my editor and it had all of my comment marginalia that I’d *accepted* on Track Changes. It was hidden on my side, but because a setting was checked somewhere deep in Word’s developer tab, my editor saw all my inane comments to myself when I sent the manuscript. I was mad that day. :(

      But I do love the search/replace function…and I’ve used that wild card function, too.

  3. Elizabeth – I use Microsoft Word when I write, and I love it. In part I suppose it’s because I’m familiar with it, so it’s easy to use. But even so, it is flexible. Along with the handy tools you’ve mentioned, I’ve also found that it’s easy to import ‘photos, charts, or spreadsheet items. So for instance, as I write, I make use of the character list I put together in my spreadsheet program. It’s right there where I can access it easily so that I’m less likely to forget character names and so on. And I’m a big fan of Search/Replace – couldn’t do the task without it.

    1. Margot–Ahh…so you import the spreadsheet into the manuscript? Very cool.

      Yes, I think the big thing Word has on its side is the fact that for most of us it’s really familiar and easy to use.

  4. Breaks? What breaks?
    The find feature I use a lot. (Because I also overuse the word just.) But nice to know I can program it to auto correct an odd name for me.

  5. Another cool feature of Word: when you do a full spell check, it offers readability statistics. Not as good as those from AutoCrit, but if you already have Word, it’s good stuff.

    Since I spelled Fearghal’s name FOUR different ways in my latest book, I should oughta use that custom autocorrect. Known about it for years; never use it.

    2. Joel–Oh, that’s nice–I didn’t realize it had readability stats. I’ll have to check that out.

      Oh, gosh, with a name like Fearghal, it would be easy to do! I think I’m going to set mine up to autocorrect Myrtle…when I type fast, it’s always Mrytle.

  6. Great post again, Ms. C. I was in the tech business for 30 years and saw MS-Word go from being a clunky also-ran to the best option.

    The most amazing innovation is in the latest version: Office365. With the annual subscription ($99 for a family of 5) you get 20GB of backed up cloud storage auto-synched to your computer. You are always backed up, and you can access your document from your phone, iPad, friend’s computer, web, anything.

    It also has new apps for customized grammar and lots of other things.

    Peace, Seeley

    1. Seeley–Oh, that’s really cool. I do like the idea of auto-synching so that the backing-up pressure is off of me (I’m sort of OCD about backing up and it would be great to be relieved of that). I’ll check it out.

    2. Great article – I’ve tagged for reference later.
      I use Word (paid program, not subscription) for my writing. The only problem is that I am away a lot and then I use my iPad, like now, for writing and to catch up on social media and email. I have been reticent to spend another $99/ year for Office 365 because I would have to use MS’ Cloud vs. Google Drive which I use (from all that I’ve read, this is not supported by MS). Google Drive affords me the added benefit of working offline too, and I’m not sure how I would do this with Word. For instance on a cruise, when you don’t want to use the ship’s internet, but still access your docs.

      For now, instead of Word (or Apple’s Pages, which I understand from my formatter causes many formating issues) I use a free app called CloudOn, which seems to work pretty good – I don’t believe it works offline. I then can pick up on my office computer in Word. But frankly not sure of alternative for iPad, including Word: again with offline capabilities and support of Google Drive. Would love some other ideas.

      1. Michael–Thanks for coming by. And I’m a little hesitant to comment since our house is a Microsoft shop and not a Mac one and so I don’t really know what the heck I’m talking about…but have you looked at Offline Word? https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/offline-word-for-microsoft/id809354616?mt=8 The only component I’m not sure about is whether it integrates to Google Docs or not (but I’m assuming you could upload to Docs, since it imports Word files and this sounds as if it would be a Word file). If I’m understanding this product correctly, it seems as if you could have Open Office on the iPad, then use this program to edit those docs offline? But again, there are probably some vagaries of the Apple computer that I’m not picking up on, so I’m hoping a Mac user will weigh in later.

        1. Elizabeth – Thanks for providing the working offline link. The uploading to Google Docs really goes to the heart of my question, which is: Will the 365 version of Word (for iPad) allow you to save your document to Google Drive? If not directly, then what is easiest way?

          I’m hoping someone in your audiance will know as well because I couldn’t find the answer to this question anywhere.

          1. Ahh…no, I can’t find an answer to that, either. But I’m assuming that with the proprietary issues that Microsoft usually puts so much stock into…that you might not be able to.

            Hope someone else will offer an answer, but a workaround might be Evernote? From what I see, it can be used offline and then uploaded to Docs and I believe it was Apple commpitible even before it was PC compatible.

  7. Wow, so many cool features I hadn’t fought of. Especially the tools that help with telling and adverbs. Who knew? And highlighting known problem areas? That’s a great idea. I’m doing that with my next first draft. I usually keep pages of notes that I refer to later. *smacks head*

    I don’t use Word…I’m hooked on Apple Pages. Now that I format my own ebooks, I’m thankful that Pages doesn’t add in a lot of extra invisible formatting. However, most tutorials out there are for Word, so I have to dig into the Pages forums to find solutions to problems. I usually find all the answers I’m looking for!

    1. Julie–I’ve got lots of pages for each manuscript in a document folder…for a while. Then I merge it all into a single doc with the comments feature and highlights, etc. That way I don’t feel so…I don’t know. It’s just sort of an ADHD feeling for me when I have to jump from one doc to another. Or when I have 8 windows of docs open at once.

      We’re a PC household here, but I hear good things about Apple Pages!

  8. I already use some of these features but there are so many I will begin using. I like the readability stats, too.

    Thanks for another helpful article.

  9. Hello :)

    On one article, Jenny–I think — talk about modifying the status bar by putting pmore info on it… well… I searched everywhere, right clicked, double clicked, went online… but no avail… found no info to modify the status bar to get more info on it. Maybe because I am on Mac? I am using Word 2011 but would like to ut more infos downthere like… number of characters or other relevant info for writers.

    Somebody knows how to do it?

    Thank you for these links… very interesting

    1. Hi Amyah,

      It looks like it *is* related to the fact you’re using a Mac. I see that others online have had similar questions. In one forum, this advice was given:

      “You have to click on the Word menu and select Preferences > View option in Word Preferences > navigate to Window section and check the box for Status bar. This would unhide the status bar in Word for Mac 2011.
      In case if you want the word count to be displayed on the status bar, then check the box for Live Word Count.”

      Another forum had this to say (perhaps a little more info):

      “Look in the main menu bar’s Word > Preferences > Spelling and Grammar. Some options won’t enable if the language applied to the text does not have a matching spelling analyzer or its dictionary was not installed. Furthermore, the applied language (see Tools > Language) should not have the “Do not check spelling or grammar” option enabled.”

      Hope this helps!

  11. I’ve been using MS Word for decades, and love it, but have you heard of SmartEdit? I thought about it when I read your mention of crutch words. SE is software for writers and a year ago I was contacted by the company to give it a try. Loved it. The app compiles lists of words and phrases that I’ve possibly misused or overused. I use Word and Scrivener for writing, and I run checks with SmartEdit for a first edit. The amount of info you get with one click is fantastic. There is one thing that it lacks: a Mac version!

  12. Elizabeth, thanks so much for linking to my Word posts. I write across both Word and Scrivener, and we do all of our critique group edits in Word’s Track Changes. I just adore that tool!

    And I found so new links in this post, so thanks for that too. I hope you’re having a wonderful summer!

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