If you're faced with a complex task using Microsoft Word's Find and Replace feature, the "Find What Text" replacement code may come in handy. For example, let's say you need to add the HTML italic tags and around anything formatted with italic. (If you don't understand HTML, don't worry. You'll soon see the point of this article.) You might think you'd need a macro to add the tags, but you don't. You can easily do it like this:

1. Open the document you want to tag.

2. Open the Find and Replace dialog (click on the Edit menu; then click "Replace").

3. With your cursor in the "Find What" box, turn on italic formatting (CTRL + I) so that the word "Italic" is displayed below the box. Make sure the box itself is empty.

4. In the "Replace With" box, enter "^&" (if you want, you can also set this box to "Not Italic" by pressing CTRL + I a couple of times).

5. Click the "Replace All" button.

Any italicized text will be surrounded by the HTML italic tags.

The ^& code in the "Replace With" box represents the text you specified in the "Find What" box. In this case, that's any text with italic formatting. What you're saying is, "Find any text in italic and replace it with *itself* surrounded by HTML italic codes."

As a specific example, let's take the following line, with asterisks indicating italic formatting:

"This is a test to *see* what will happen."

When you use the Find and Replace procedure above, you'll get the following result:

"This is a test to see what will happen."

You can use the same principle to manipulate text in a variety of ways:

* Put quotation marks around the titles of magazine articles that an author has italicized.

* Insert a bullet in front of every paragraph formatted with Heading 3 style. (You knew you could find style formatting, right? In the Find or Replace dialog, click the "More" button [if available], then "Format," and then "Style.")

* Insert "Chapter" in front of every number formatted with Heading 1 style.

And so on. Any time you need to add something to unspecified text that's formatted in a specific way, try using "Find What Text."

Last week we talked about using style "aliases," which make it easy to apply styles in Microsoft Word. Even easier is using keyboard shortcuts. I don't like the inconsistency of Word's standard ones, so mine are set up like this:

CTRL + SHIFT + 1 applies the Heading 1 style (Macintosh users would use OPTION rather than CTRL).

CTRL + SHIFT + 2 applies Heading 2.

CTRL + SHIFT + 3 applies Heading 3.

I've added the other heading styles as well--all the way through Heading 9 on CTRL + SHIFT 9.

Also on my computer:

CTRL + SHIFT + N applies the Normal style.

CTRL + SHIFT + B applies Block quotation.

CTRL + SHIFT + L applies List.

CTRL + SHIFT + P applies Poem.

In fact, for those last three, our Editor's ToolKit and WordSetter programs automatically style block quotations, lists, and poems as they should be for correct typographic control. For example, a four-paragraph block quotation actually needs *three* styles, not just one--like this:

First paragraph of the block quotation.

Middle paragraph of the block quotation.

Another middle paragraph of the block quotation.

Last paragraph of the block quotation.

On a typeset page, the positioning of each paragraph would be basically the same as it is in this newsletter, with spacing above and below the block quotation.

To accomplish that, the first paragraph would need a style called something like BlockFirst, which would be set up to include, say, 6 extra points of spacing (leading) above it.

The second and third paragraphs, styled with BlockMiddle, would include *no* extra spacing above or below.

The third paragraph, styled with BlockLast, would include 6 extra points of spacing below it.

That may seem overly picky, but it provides enormous control over the formatting of a block quotation, and it's the right way to do it. The *easy* way to do it is to install our Editor's ToolKit or WordSetter program, select the paragraphs of the block quotation you want to format, and press CTRL + SHIFT + B. Bingo! The whole block quotation will automatically be styled correctly. If you think that's neat, you should see how the programs style multiple-stanza poems (too complex to go into here).

If you want to assign your own key combinations to styles, you can do it like this:

1. Click the "Format" menu.

2. Click "Style."

3. In the "Styles" box, find and click the style you want to apply with a key combination.

4. Click the "Modify" button.

5. Click the "Shortcut key" button.

6. With your cursor in the box labeled "Press new shortcut key," press the key combination you want to use, such as CTRL + SHIFT + B.

7. Click the "Assign" button. The new combination will appear in the box labeled "Current keys."

8. Click the "Close" button.

9. Click the "OK" button.

10. Click the "Close" button.

To apply the style using the new key combination, do this:

1. Position your cursor on the paragraph you want to style

2. Press the key combination.

The paragraph will be formatted with the style you selected for that key combination.

Try not to get too carried away. Remember that you need certain key combinations for things other than styles. CTRL + F, for example, brings up Word's Find dialog, and ALT + E activates the Edit menu.

If you need to remove a key combination, that's easy too:

1. Click the "Format" menu.

2. Click "Style."

3. In the "Styles" box, find and click the style with the key combination you want to remove.

4. Click the "Modify" button.

5. Click the "Shortcut key" button.

6. In the "Current keys" box, click the key combination you want to get rid of.

7. Click the "Remove" button. The new combination will disappear.

8. Click the "Close" button.

9. Click the "OK" button.

10. Click the "Close" button.

And that's how to use keyboard shortcuts with style--oops, I mean styles.

To learn more about Editor's ToolKit, click here:

http://www.editorium.com/14842.htm

To learn more about WordSetter, click here:

http://www.editorium.com/14000.htm

As I edit in Microsoft Word, I mark the various typesetting spec levels with styles, which will later be converted by our QuarkConverter program so they can be used as style sheets in QuarkXPress. However, I hate reaching for my mouse to apply styles. So, to make applying styles easy, I sometimes rename the styles with an "alias," which I can quickly type using the keyboard. For example, if I had a style called "Block," I might give it the alias of "b." Here's how it works:

1. Click the Format menu.

2. Click "Style."

3. Click the name of the style you want to rename with an alias.

4. Click the Modify button.

5. In the "Name" box, add a comma to the end of the name, followed by the alias you want to use. (There should be no space after the comma.) For example, to give our Block style an alias of "b," your entry would look like this:

Block,b

6. Click the "OK" button.

7. Click the "Close" button.

Now, to apply the style, do this:

1. Make sure the Formatting toolbar is displayed (View/Toolbars/Formatting).

2. Press CTRL + SHIFT + S to activate the list of styles in the Formatting toolbar.

3. Type the style alias ("b").

4. Press the Enter key.

The currently selected paragraph will be formatted with the Block style.

Aliases aren't limited to one character, and you can use aliases with character styles as well as paragraph styles.

In addition to using aliases, you can use keyboard shortcuts to apply styles. We'll talk about that next week.

To learn more about our QuarkConverter program, click here:

http://www.editorium.com/14846.htm

Conditional text is text that you want to appear only in a certain situation. For example, let's say you're using Microsoft Word to write two brochures for the new WidgetMaster 2000. One brochure is a sales piece; the other explains the product's technical specifications. However, certain sections of both brochures contain exactly the same information.

The brochures are going to go through several rounds of client approval, and you're not excited about having to make the same corrections in both. Of course, you could make the corrections in one and then copy the corrected sections into the other. But if you're like me, you'd start to wonder if you'd been consistent about it, and at some point you'd get confused about which version was really correct. Fussing around with different versions is a pain.

Instead of working with two versions, consider using conditional text--courtesy of our old friend, Hidden formatting. (See our past two newsletters for other ways to use this feature.)

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1702656525

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1702836319

Using conditional text, you can write and correct just one document, hiding or revealing the conditional sections as needed. Here's how:

1. Create the styles for the sections that are the same in both brochures: CommonHeading, CommonBody, and so on. (Or just use your usual styles.)

2. Create the styles for the sales section: SalesHeading, SalesBody, and so on.

3. Create the styles for the technical section: TechHeading, TechBody, and so on.

4. Base all of the styles *for each kind of section* on one main style. For example, you might base the SalesHeading style on the SalesBody style, and the TechHeading style on the TechBody style.

Now write the brochure, using the styles to format the common, sales, and technical sections.

When you're ready to print one of the brochure versions (the sales version, for example), set the main style for the technical section (TechBody) to Hidden, as explained in last week's newsletter:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1702836319

All of the text for the technical section will disappear, leaving visible only the common and sales sections. There's your sales brochure!

When you're ready to print the technical brochure, remove the Hidden formatting from the main technical style (TechBody) and set it for the main sales style (SalesBody). All of the text for the sales section will disappear, leaving visible only the common and technical sections. There's your technical brochure!

This may not be as sophisticated as the conditional text feature in dedicated composition programs, such as FrameMaker. But somewhere, sometime, maybe it will help you get the job done.

Last week we talked about using Hidden formatting to make sure a list sorts properly. But Hidden formatting is useful for other things as well.

Let's say you're editing a scholarly book with dozens of block quotations from old journals. The author has consistently misspelled several geographical and personal names, so you fire up our MegaReplacer program to find and replace them all in one fell swoop (or you get ready to do them one at a time, by hand).

But wait! Although you want to replace the *author's* misspellings, you *don't* want to replace the original misspellings in the block quotations. They need to be reproduced verbatim. And you certainly don't want to okay every replacement by hand in this, long, long book.

Hidden formatting to the rescue!

Being the astute editor that you are, you've already formatted the block quotations with a style--named Block, let's say. (If you're not using styles for formatting, I beg you to learn how *today.* It will save you enormous amounts of time.) All you need to do now is set formatting in the Block style to Hidden. Here's how:

1. Click the Format menu.

2. Click "Style."

3. In the Styles box, click "Block."

4. Click the Modify button.

5. Click the Format button.

6. Click "Font."

7. Check the box labeled "Hidden."

8. Click the OK button.

9. Click the next OK button.

10. Click the Close button.

Whoa! All of your block quotations will have disappeared--if you're not displaying hidden text. If you *are* displaying hidden text, hide it, like this:

1. Click the Tools menu.

2. Click "Options."

3. Uncheck the box labeled "Hidden text."

4. Click the OK button.

Now, with your block quotations hidden, you can find and replace the misspellings in the rest of your text. Pretty slick!

Once you're finished, don't forget to reset your block quotations so they're no longer hidden. To do so, follow the first procedure used above, but this time *uncheck* the box labeled "Hidden." All of your block quotations will reappear, with their misspellings gloriously intact.

Now there's a "hidden" secret worth knowing!

In our last newsletter, we talked about how to work with lists.

You can read the newsletter here:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1702467672.

I presented the following list of book titles, noting that I'd removed the initial "The" from The Old Man and the Sea and The Great Gatsby so they'd sort properly:

To Kill a Mockingbird

Jane Eyre

Old Man and the Sea

Great Gatsby

Moby Dick

A subscriber wrote to ask if there isn't a way to preserve the initial articles (like "The") but still sort correctly, mentioning that he'd had to delete opening quotation marks from items in a list so the items wouldn't be sorted to the top.

It would certainly be possible to write a macro that would take care of such items. Another approach, however, would be to format initial articles as Hidden. Let's say you're working with a list like this (notice the articles on the third and fourth items):

To Kill a Mockingbird

Jane Eyre

The Old Man and the Sea

The Great Gatsby

Moby Dick

You could use Microsoft Word's Find and Replace feature to find "The" (using Match Case) and replace it with "The" in Hidden format. In Word 97, 98, and 2000, you'd do it like this (the procedure is basically the same in earlier versions):

1. Click the "Edit" menu.

2. Click "Replace."

3. If it's available, click the "No Formatting" button.

4. Type "The " in the "Find what" box (include a space after the word).

5. Type "The " in the "Replace with" box (include a space after the word).

6. If it's available, click the "More" button.

7. Check the "Match case" box. (Uncheck any of the other boxes.)

8. Click the "Format" button.

9. Click "Font."

10. Check the "Hidden" box.

11. Click the "OK" button.

12. Click the "Replace All" button.

13. Click the "OK" button when Word tells you how many items it found and replaced.

14. Click the "Close" button.

You could repeat this for anything else you want to be ignored when you sort the list, such as "A," "An," quotation marks, and so on. (You could even record all of these together as a macro.)

Now sort your list (Table/Sort Text). When you're finished, it should look like this:

Great Gatsby

Jane Eyre

Moby Dick

Old Man and the Sea

To Kill a Mockingbird

But wait! We're not done yet. Now we'll get our articles (etc.) back by reversing the Find and Replace routine we used to hide them:

1. Click the "Tools" menu.

2. Click "Options."

3. Click the "View" tab.

4. Check the "Hidden text" box (under the "Formatting marks" heading).

5. Click the "OK" button (revealing the hidden text so it can be found).

6. Click the "Edit" menu.

7. Click "Replace."

8. If it's available, click the "No Formatting" button.

9. Type "The " in the "Find what" box (include a space after the word).

10. If it's available, click the "More" button.

11. Check the "Match case" box. (Uncheck any of the other boxes.)

12. Type "The " in the "Replace with" box (include a space after the word).

13. Click the "Format" button.

14. Click "Font."

15. Clear the "Hidden" box.

16. Click the "OK" button.

17. Click the "Replace all" button.

18. Click the "OK" button when Word tells you how many items it found and replaced.

19. Click the "Close" button.

Now your list will look like this, which is what you were after in the first place:

The Great Gatsby

Jane Eyre

Moby Dick

The Old Man and the Sea

To Kill a Mockingbird

Hidden text is useful for other things, too--but we'll talk about that another day.

In my other life I work at a publishing house, so quite often I compile and edit lists of book titles, authors, type specs--all kinds of things. (I just finished putting together a list of nearly 1,400 book titles for a giant electronic publishing project.) A typical list looks like this:

To Kill a Mockingbird

Jane Eyre

Old Man and the Sea

Great Gatsby

Moby Dick

And so on. (You'll notice that I removed the initial "The" from The Old Man and the Sea and The Great Gatsby so they'll sort properly. You may also want to do this with "A" and "An" if you're sorting lists of books.)

BMW (before Microsoft Word) I used to sort such lists by hand. Now I sort them like this:

1. In Microsoft Word, select the paragraphs making up the list to be sorted.

2. Click the Table menu.

3. Click "Sort" or "Sort Text."

4. Under "Sort by," select "Paragraphs."

5. Under "Type," select "Text."

6. Select "Ascending."

7. Click "OK."

Wow, that works great! But wait a minute. I've got Great Gatsby in here three times! And Moby Dick twice! I wonder how many other duplicates I've got. Isn't there a way to delete them automatically?

In fact, there is. Just use this trusty macro, compliments of the Editorium:

FOR MICROSOFT WORD 6 OR 7 (95):

'THE MACRO STARTS HERE
StartOfDocument
ParaDown 1, 1
Para1$ = Selection$()
CharRight 1
While AtEndOfDocument() = 0
ParaDown 1, 1
Para2$ = Selection$()
If Para1$ = Para2$ Then
WW6_EditClear
Else
Para1$ = Para2$
CharRight 1
EndIf
Wend
'THE MACRO ENDS HERE

FOR MICROSOFT WORD 8 (97 OR 98) OR 9 (2000):

'THE MACRO STARTS HERE
Dim Para1$
Dim Para2$
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.ParaDown 1, 1
Para1$ = WordBasic.[Selection$]()
WordBasic.CharRight 1
While WordBasic.AtEndOfDocument() = 0
WordBasic.ParaDown 1, 1
Para2$ = WordBasic.[Selection$]()
If Para1$ = Para2$ Then
WordBasic.WW6_EditClear
Else
Para1$ = Para2$
WordBasic.CharRight 1
End If
Wend
'THE MACRO ENDS HERE

TO CREATE THE MACRO

1. Copy the appropriate macro from this newsletter.

2. Click the "Tools" menu at the top of your Word window.

3. Click "Macro."

4. In Word 97, 98, or 2000, click "Macros."

5. Make sure "Macros Available In" shows "Normal.dot."

6. Type a name for the macro in the "Macro Name" box--"DeleteDuplicates" should do nicely.

7. Click "Create."

8. Paste the macro at the current insertion point.

9. In Word 6 or 7, click "File," then "Close," then "Yes." In Word 97, 98, or 2000, click "File," then "Close and Return to Microsoft Word."

TO RUN THE MACRO:

1. *Back up your document* in case something doesn't work quite right.

2. Click the "Tools" menu at the top of your Word window.

3. Click "Macro."

4. In Word 97, 98, or 2000, click "Macros."

5. Make sure "Macros Available In" shows "Normal.dot."

6. Select the macro (probably "DeleteDuplicates") in the "Macro Name" box.

7. Click "Run."

No more duplicates! (If you still see what seem to be duplicates, check them carefully. One of the pair may be spelled slightly differently or have an invisible space preceding the carriage return.)

If you need other macros to make your life easier, you may be interested in our program add-ins at http://www.editorium.com. If you're editing, writing, or typesetting in Microsoft Word, they'll save you time. Couldn't you use more of it?

Recently a Microsoft Word user asked me, "Is there an easy way to print the names and descriptions of the styles I'm using in my document?" Fortunately, there is. Here's the procedure:

1. Click the File menu.

2. Click "Print."

3. Click the "Print what" box at the lower left of the Print dialog box.

4. On the list of items you can print, click "Styles."

5. Click "OK."

Microsoft Word will print out a nicely formatted list (names and descriptions) of the styles you're using in that document.

If you try this, you'll notice that there are other items on the "Print what" list besides styles (and the document itself, of course). These include:

* AutoText entries. This will print your AutoText entries, including the AutoText name and the text itself.

* Comments (Annotations). This will print the comments in the document (including page number, reviewer's initials, and the text of the comment), which can be handy if you need to give a bunch of queries to an author or just want to review notes you've made to yourself.

* Document properties (Summary info). This will print the information in the document properties or summary info, such as title, subject, author, and so on.

* Key assignments. This will print the names, keyboard shortcuts, and descriptions of any custom key assignments you've made.

Print what? Almost anything you want.

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

If you've been to the grocery store recently, you may have noticed certain boxes of General Mills cereal with a CD-ROM attached. The CD-ROM is advertised as containing a computer game (mine has "Amazon Trail"). What's not so obvious is that the CD-ROM also includes the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, the American Concise Encyclopedia, and the New International Version of the Bible--a pretty nice electronic reference library that's yours for free (after you buy the cereal, of course). I'm not promoting General Mills here; I'm just passing on a discovery that I hope you can use.

After I published our last issue, in which I hammered on "paper" editors fairly hard, LeAnne Baird wrote to remind me that there are times when editing on paper may be the best way to go. What are those times? Here are a few for your consideration:

1. When training is at least as important as efficiency. If you're trying to turn a proofreader into a copyeditor, or help a writer produce better copy, editing on paper lets the proofreader or writer see and absorb your changes. Yes, you can track revisions in Microsoft Word. But since a typeset document is eventually created from the edited Word document, there's no need for a proofreader to compare the two--or for a writer to make changes that have already been made.

Also, one of the main reasons for editing on the computer is to eliminate steps in the publishing process. So, if you're editing on the computer, you'll need to systematically teach the skills people learn naturally while proofreading or making corrections. Once source for training materials is EEI Communications (http://www.eeicommunications.com/), which publishes a book called Substance & Style: Instruction and Practice in Copyediting, by Mary Stoughton (http://www.eeicommunications.com/press/ss/).

2. When you're faced with a challenge that makes editing on the computer difficult or impossible. The problem could be anything from impaired vision to attention deficit disorder to carpal tunnel syndrome. Whatever it is, you'll need to find a way to work with it, and that might include editing on paper.

3. When you're doing a massive cut-and-paste job and simply need to see four or five or a dozen pages at once. Microsoft Word does a pretty good job of letting you see more than one document at a time, but unless you have a 36-inch monitor, paper may still be a more effective way to tackle the problem.

See "Doing the Splits" in our May 9, 2000, issue:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1700620580