Author Archives: Jack Lyon

Disappearing Character Formatting

By Jack Lyon | Published: January 2, 2002

Part of my editing process is applying paragraph styles (like Heading 1) to a manuscript. As I’ve done this, I’ve noticed an annoying bug: Applying the paragraph style often makes character formatting (such as italics) disappear. You can see this for yourself: 1. Create a new document in Word 6, 95, 97, 98, 2000, or […]

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Finding "Whole Words Only" with Wildcards

By Jack Lyon | Published: December 26, 2001

If you often use wildcards with Microsoft Word’s Find and Replace feature, you probably know that Word won’t let you specify “Find whole words only” when the “Use wildcards” option is checked. This is more than an annoyance; sometimes you really *need* to be able to find whole words only while searching with wildcards. To […]

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Resizing Drop-Down Lists

By Jack Lyon | Published: December 19, 2001

I work a lot with styles in Microsoft Word, and I like being able to look up at the drop-down style list on the formatting toolbar to see the name of the current paragraph style. I also like giving my styles long, descriptive names, such as Normal Text 2, Normal Text 2 No Indent, Normal […]

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Exclude Dictionary

By Jack Lyon | Published: December 5, 2001

You’ve just sent a freshly edited manuscript back to your client, but you decide to glance through it one last time. Acck! What’s this? “Our company has been highly visible in the pubic arena . . .” How did *that* get through? It got through because you don’t have an exclude dictionary in Microsoft Word. […]

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Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus on CD-ROM

By Jack Lyon | Published: November 28, 2001

If you haven’t yet read the New York Times editorial by Mark Goldblatt on the bowdlerization of Microsoft Word’s thesaurus, you owe it to yourself to do so. You can read the piece here: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/23/opinion/23GOLD.html (You may need to register in order to read the article. But it’s free!) Goldblatt chronicles his discovery that Microsoft […]

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Typesetting with Microsoft Word

By Jack Lyon | Published: November 21, 2001

So, you’ve got a client (or a boss) who wants you to create a *finished* document in Microsoft Word. In other words, you get to do typesetting–in a program that isn’t really designed for typesetting. Here are some tips you might find useful: 1. Consult Word’s Help file or, better yet, a good reference book […]

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More Bugs

By Jack Lyon | Published: November 14, 2001

More bugs this week–just so you’ll know what to watch out for while you’re editing in Microsoft Word. Thanks to all who contributed to the collection. I’ve included a couple of my own “favorites” as well. One bug I particularly dislike is the “no-delete-with-Tracking” bug. When I edit, I usually turn Tracking on so I […]

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Bug Collection

By Jack Lyon | Published: November 7, 2001

In the past couple of newsletters, I put out a call for bugs–or just things that bug you–in Microsoft Word. Thanks to everyone who responded. I had some of my own bugs to share, but I’ll save those for another day. And now, the bug collection–including some useful advice! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Styles and Fields ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Steve […]

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Compressed Word Spacing

By Jack Lyon | Published: October 31, 2001

[Calling all bugs! Calling all bugs! I’m trying to put together a bug collection for next week’s newsletter. If you’ve discovered a bug (or just something that bugs you) in Microsoft Word, please take a minute and drop me a line.] If you’ve tried using Microsoft Word to produce decently justified text, you’ve seen the […]

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Go2Text vs. Find

By Jack Lyon | Published: October 17, 2001

Last week’s newsletter featured a macro (Go2Text) designed to take you to specified text without using cursor keys or the mouse. You can learn about it here: http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1708547575 A couple of readers have asked (much more nicely than this), “Why the heck should I use Go2Text when Word’s Find feature will do the same thing?” […]

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