Last week we talked about Microsoft Word's Spike feature, which lets you cut as many blocks of text as you want (like sticking them on a spike) and then paste them all at once in your chosen location. You can read last week's newsletter here:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1701584333

But what if you want to *copy* rather than cut the text to add to the Spike? You can do it with a special Word macro called CopySpike--*if* you have the Macros8 template that comes with Word 8 (97 or 98) and you are using Word 8 or Word 9 (2000). I thought the macro was also in the Macros9 template for Word 2000, but it's not. And the Macros8 template isn't available at the Microsoft Web site. What's an editor to do?

Use one of our custom macros, below, which will run in Word 6, 7 (95), 8 (97 or 98), or 9 (2000) on Macintosh or PC.

FOR MICROSOFT WORD 6 OR 7 (95):

'THE MACRO STARTS HERE
If GetSelStartPos() <> 
GetSelEndPos() Then	'Text is selected
Spike			'Add entry to spike
EditUndo		'Undo the cut
Else
MsgBox "Please select text before running this macro.", 
"No Text Selected"
End If
'THE MACRO ENDS HERE

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

'THE MACRO STARTS HERE
If WordBasic.GetSelStartPos() <> _
WordBasic.GetSelEndPos() Then	'Text is selected
WordBasic.Spike			'Add entry to spike
WordBasic.EditUndo		'Undo the cut
Else
WordBasic.MsgBox "Please select text before running this macro.", _
"No Text Selected"
End If
'THE MACRO ENDS HERE

TO CREATE THE MACRO AND ASSIGN IT TO A KEYBOARD SHORTCUT:

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--maybe "Copy2Spike" to differentiate it from Microsoft's CopySpike macro.

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."

10. Click the "Tools" menu.

11. Click "Customize."

12. Click the "Keyboard" tab or button.

13. In the "Categories" window, click "Macros."

14. In the "Macros" window, click "Copy2Spike" (or whatever name you gave the macro).

15. With your cursor in the "Press new shortcut key" box, press the keyboard shortcut you want to use to run the macro--ALT + CTRL + F3, for example.

16. Make sure the "Save Changes In" box shows "Normal.dot."

17. Click the "Assign" button.

18. Click the "Close" button.

TO USE THE MACRO:

1. Select the text you want to copy to the Spike.

2. Press the keyboard shortcut you set to run the macro (such as ALT + CTRL + F3).

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each entry you want to copy to the Spike.

4. Place your cursor at the spot where you want to insert the contents of the Spike.

5. Press CTRL + SHIFT + F3.

The contents of the Spike will be inserted into your text, and the Spike will be empty once more. (Remember that the Spike pastes each of its entries as a separate paragraph, so you probably won't want to unload it in the middle of a sentence somewhere.)

If you do have Word 8 and the Macros8 template, just open the template in Word and follow the on-screen instructions to install and run Microsoft's version of the CopySpike macro. (You should find the template in C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeMacros.)

If you're looking for other custom macros to make your work easier, try our add-in programs at http://www.editorium.com.

Remember when editors wore green celluloid visors and impaled pieces of paper on a shiny steel spike? Word, too, has a spike, but it's buried so deep that most Word users have never even heard of it. The Spike is a *cumulative* cut and paste. It lets you cut as many blocks of text as you want (like sticking them on a spike) and then paste them all at once in your chosen location. The text is pasted in the order in which it was cut--first in, first out. If you're rearranging massive chunks of text,
you'll find the Spike exceedingly useful.

To use the Spike, do this:

1. Select the text you want to cut to the Spike.

2. Press CTRL+F3.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each item you want to add to the Spike.

4. Place your cursor at the spot where you want to insert the contents
of the Spike.

5. Press CTRL+SHIFT+F3.

The contents of the Spike will be inserted into your text, and the Spike will be empty once more. (Note: The Spike pastes each of its entries as a separate paragraph, so you probably won't want to unload it in the middle of a sentence somewhere.)

The Spike is actually an AutoText entry, which means you can see what's in it. To do so:

1. Click the Insert menu.

2. Click "AutoText."

3. In the list of AutoText names, click "spike."

You'll see the Spike's contents in the Preview box.

While you're there, you can insert the contents of the Spike into your document by clicking the Insert button. This will leave the contents of the Spike intact so you can use it again elsewhere if you need to. Or, you can accomplish the same thing like this:

1. Type the word "spike" into your document (remember, the Spike is an AutoText entry).

2. Press F3.

What if you want to *copy* rather than cut the text to add to the Spike? You can do it with a special Word macro that we'll discuss next week. In the meantime, I hope you like Spike!

In our last newsletter, I promised to tell you about Word's Extend Selection feature, which I've assigned to the Insert key in our Editor's ToolKit program. Extend Selection, a terrific tool, is often overlooked because it's not included on a menu or a toolbar. It's also not covered well in Word's documentation (so what else is new?). Nevertheless, if you're editing in Microsoft Word, you'll find this feature invaluable.

Here's how it works: You're editing along and decide to delete the rest of the sentence. You could do it this way:

1. Hold down SHIFT.

2. Use your cursor key to move and move and move and move to the end of the sentence.

3. Press DELETE.

Or, you could do it this way:

1. Press F8 to turn on Extend Selection (or double-click the EXT box in the status bar at the bottom of your Word window).

2. Press the period key (.) to instantly select to the end of the sentence.

3. Press DELETE.

The second way is much faster, and when deadlines are looming, fast is good.

Extend Selection automatically selects to any character you type. If you hit the spacebar, it moves to the next space (probably selecting a word). Hit it again to extend to the space after that. Neat! Hit ENTER to extend to the end of the paragraph. Hit a character key to move to the next occurrence of a specific character. Use Word's Find feature to extend the selection to something far, far away. Once you've got that text selected, you can cut it, copy it, italicize it, style it, change its case, type over the top of it, or do almost anything else to it. You can even stick it on the Spike--but we'll talk about that in our next issue.

In the meantime, you should know that hitting F8 several times in succession selects text all by itself. Here's the pattern:

Hit F8 once to turn on Extend Selection.

Hit it again to select the current word.

Hit it again to select the current sentence.

Hit it again to select the current paragraph.

Hit it again to select the whole document. Now that's a selection!

If you change your mind, you can cancel the selection by hitting ESCAPE and then pressing a cursor key.

The next time you need to select some text, don't reach for the SHIFT key. Instead, try Extend Selection.

In our last newsletter, I complained about accidentally hitting the Insert key and thus turning on Overstrike by mistake. Microsoft Word lets you reassign the Insert key to paste the contents of the Clipboard, but that brings its own set of problems.

Subscriber Kathy Anderson suggested using the Insert key as an additional Delete key. Bruce (whi-@msn.com.au) from WinHelp IT Editing (http://winhelp.nu) suggested using it to insert a commonly used symbol, such as the copyright mark. For instructions on how to do this, see the May 2 Editorium Update:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1700545039&sort=d&start=0

(If that address breaks in your email, you may need to put it back together.)

These still don?t solve my problem, however, which is my tendency to hit the key by mistake and then change the document without realizing it. If you, too, have that problem, here are some reassignments you might consider, with their "official" command names (which you?ll need later):

* OtherPane switches to and from another window pane, whether that be a notes pane, an annotations pane, or a split window--very handy if you do a lot of moving back and forth between one of those and your main document. Best of all, if no pane is open, it does nothing!

* ViewFootnotes opens and closes the notes pane at the bottom of your Word window. If you work with notes a lot, this would be a great feature to assign to the Insert key.

* ToolsWordCount displays the number of pages, words, characters, paragraphs, and lines in your document. See the June 27 Editorium Update for a way to use this feature:

http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1701177723&sort=d&start=0

* ToolsThesaurus looks up a selected word in Word?s built-in thesaurus, which I?d probably use a lot more if it were on a conveniently placed key rather than under the Tools menu.

* FormatChangeCase selects a word and lets you change its case.

* EndOfLineExtend extends the selection to the end of the line. After using this feature, you could press the delete key to delete to the end of the line.

There are many other candidates, too, which you can explore using a test document and the instructions below. I?ll discuss one of my favorites, ExtendSelection, in our next newsletter. In the meantime, here?s how to assign a different feature to the Insert key if you?re interested in doing so:

1. Click the Tools menu at the top of your Word window.

2. Click "Customize."

3. Click the Keyboard tab or button.

4. In the Categories list, find and click "All Commands."

5. In the Commands list, find and click the feature you want to assign to the Insert key (OtherPane, for example).

6. With your cursor in the Press New Shortcut Key box, press the Insert key on your keyboard.

7. Make sure the Save Changes In box shows Normal.dot.

8. Click the Assign button. (If you wanted to remove a reassignment, you'd click the Remove button.)

9. Click the Close button.

It happens all the time: I'm editing merrily along in Microsoft Word only to discover that I've accidentally hit the Insert key, turning on Overstrike. Now I've typed over the top of a whole sentence and who knows what else. Aarrgh! I wish I could rip that key right off my keyboard.

After I calm down, I look for a less drastic solution. Sure enough, it's possible to reassign the Insert key so that instead of turning on Overstrike, it pastes something I've copied (just like pressing CTRL + V or clicking "Paste" on the Edit menu).

If you'd like to do the same thing, here's the procedure:

1. Click the Tools menu.

2. Click "Options."

3. Click the Edit tab.

4. Check the box labeled "Use the INS key for Paste."

5. Click the OK button.

(If, for some unfathomable reason, you still need to turn on Overstrike, just double-click the OVR box in the status bar at the bottom of your Word window. To turn it off, double-click the OVR box again.)

Finally, the Insert key is good for something!

It's still not perfect, though. Here's what happens: I'm editing merrily along in Microsoft Word only to discover that I've accidentally hit the Insert key, pasting a whole bunch of unwanted text here and who knows where else. Aarrgh! I wish I could rip that key right off my keyboard.

After I calm down, I look for a less drastic solution. Sure enough, it's possible to reassign the Insert key to almost anything! The question is, what should it be? I'll give you some possible answers in next week's newsletter.

A longtime, highly skilled editor I know likes to keep track of how much she's tightened a manuscript, and she does it by counting words or pages as she works. This is especially useful if a publication (a magazine, for example) has only so much room for a particular article. But it may also be useful in editing long documents, such as books. After you've done it for a while, you'll get a feel for how much certain kinds of material need to be tightened, and you can use that as a guide in the amount of editing you do.

If you think this technique would be useful, Microsoft Word makes it easy to try. Before you start editing a particular document, do this:

1. Click "Tools."

2. Click "Word Count."

A dialog box will appear that shows the length of your manuscript in pages, words, characters, paragraphs, and lines. On a sheet of paper, jot down the number of pages (or words, if your document is short). Then, as you edit, check from time to time to see how you're progressing. Unless your space is limited, you don't consciously need to cut by a certain number of words or pages. Just edit as you ordinarily would. When you're finished, check the page count again. How did you do?

You might want to keep a record of your results for a variety of documents. Eventually, it will help you know ahead of time if you can get a chapter or article down to size through your regular editing, or if you'll need to get out the ax and start chopping. If you're negotiating with an author or client, that may be a useful thing to know. It may also be useful if you're making assignments to other editors: "Will you cut this by a third, please? I think that would be just about right."

If you're like me, you've often made an editorial correction in Microsoft Word and then, five pages later, changed your mind. But where was that correction? Word includes a feature that will take you back to your last change, then the change before that, and so on, cycling through the last four changes in your document.

The name of the feature is Go Back, although it's sometimes referred to as Previous Edit. Whatever Microsoft wants to call it, it's a handy feature to have. The problem is, it's a hard feature to find. You won't see it on a menu or a toolbar. Nevertheless, it's there, and you can use it by pressing SHIFT + F5.

When you press SHIFT + F5, you'll go back to your last change. What's less obvious is that if you made the change in a different document that's still open, Word will switch to that document and take you to the last change there. Neat! Not only that, but if you open a document you've worked on before, SHIFT + F5 will take you to the last change you made in *that* document. Amazing! Now you can find the place you left off editing in a document you've saved and closed. (If you're using our Editor's ToolKit program, you'll use the Go Back feature by pressing SHIFT + F10 rather than SHIFT + F5. You'll also find it on the Editor's ToolKit 1 toolbar and on the Edit menu, right under Go To.)

Go Back isn't a big, flashy feature. It's just one of those basic, practical tools that you'll use all the time--now that you know where it is.

It's hard to beat Microsoft Word if you're editing a document with footnotes or endnotes. If you add or delete a note, the other notes renumber automatically (assuming the notes haven't been typed as body text and numbered manually), and the program provides a notes "pane" that allows you to edit all of your notes at once. (With WordPerfect, you have to view and edit one note at a time. Yechhh.) To use the notes pane most effectively, follow this procedure:

1. Make sure you're using Normal view rather than Page Layout view (click the View menu and then "Normal").

2. Open the notes pane (click the View menu and then "Footnotes").

3. Use your mouse to grab the top of the notes pane and move it almost to the top of your document window, giving you plenty of room to work. (If you move it too far, the notes pane will close.)

Now you can see and edit all of your notes at once. (To close the notes pane, click the "Close" button at the top of the pane.)

Here are some other tips for working with notes:

* Use Word's Go To feature (CTRL + G) to go to a specific note. This will work in document text and in the notes pane.

* Let Microsoft Word do the numbering for you. Some writers and editors do such weird things as use Word's automatic note reference numbers but manually type notes and note numbers at the bottom of the document rather than use the notes pane. I've also seen cases where an author, wanting to use a number followed by a period for note numbers, deleted and retyped each note number (with a period) in the notes pane, or inserted a period after the automatic note number. This is madness. Let Word do the job it was designed to do.

* Don't put headings into the notes pane. Some authors type things like "Notes to Chapter 3" at the top of the pane. It may look okay when you print it out, but it's actually a note without a note number, and it may cause file corruption and other problems. If you need to use such headings, put them at the bottom of your document text.

* You can convert endnotes to footnotes or vice versa by clicking the Insert menu and then clicking "Footnote," "Options," and "Convert."

* If you're working with revision marking, or tracking, turned on, you can delete a note reference number from the document text, but the note itself will still show up in the notes pane, and your other note reference numbers won't renumber correctly. This appears to be a bug in Microsoft Word. The only remedy I've found is to accept revisions by clicking the Tools menu, then "Revisions," and then "Accept All." (You can also accept a single revision by clicking "Review" rather than "Accept All.")

* If you're editing a document with manually typed notes rather than automatically numbered notes, you can turn them into automatically numbered notes with our NoteStripper program, which you can download at http://www.editorium.com/15078.htm. Then you won't have to renumber the notes by hand when you're finished editing.

* If you need to turn automatically numbered notes into regular numbered text (perhaps for use in QuarkXPress or PageMaker), our NoteStripper program will do that as well. It also includes other tools to make working with notes a snap.

Just another pretty face? Nothing wrong with that. If you're editing in Microsoft Word, why not use a typeface that you're comfortable reading and that makes editing easy? (Unless, of course, you're editing documents that have already been carefully formatted for typesetting.) You can always apply the final typeface and formatting after your editing is finished (probably just by attaching a different template to the document).

Some typefaces lend themselves better to editing than others. Here are some things to look for in a typeface to use while you're editing:

1. Legibility. Are the characters clear and easy to read?

2. Universality. Is the typeface readily available at no cost or low cost, and on other computers as well as your own?

3. Are special characters easy to distinguish? These include the hyphen, the en dash, the em dash, and opening and closing quotation marks.

I first thought that Courier might be a good font to use in editing. It's nice and clear and can be found almost anywhere. Its hyphen and dashes, though, are practically indistinguishable, making it unsuitable for editorial work.

After considerable testing and exploration, I've found three typefaces that seem to me to work especially well for editing:

1. Times Roman (yep, that old chestnut), some variation of which you almost certainly have on your computer already.

2. Verdana.

3. Georgia.

Times Roman is actually a bit small and condensed (designed to fit lots of type into a newspaper column), but you probably won't find a face with more easily distinguishable quotation marks and dashes. The em dash is nice and long, the hyphen is tiny, and the en dash falls comfortably in between. You just have to make sure that you get the point size big enough so you can read it comfortably.

Verdana is a Microsoft typeface that was designed for viewing on-screen, so it looks especially clean and legible on a computer monitor. Its quotation marks aren't as clearly distinguishable as those in Times Roman, but they're not bad, either. Verdana's main drawback is that it's a sans serif font, so the eye doesn't glide from letter to letter. If you're using Verdana for editing, however, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as you may have a tendency to slow down a little as you read.

Georgia is another Microsoft typeface that was designed for viewing on-screen, so, like Verdana, it looks great on a computer monitor. Unlike Verdana, it has serifs, making it a little smoother to read.

You can download both Verdana and Georgia free of charge from Microsoft at the following address (which may break in your email and need to be put back together):

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm?fname=%20&fsize=

Using one of these fonts, you may want to create a template that you attach to documents you're going to edit. If you don't want to create such a template yourself, please feel free to use the Typespec template that comes with our Editor's ToolKit program. You can download it at this address:

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

Whether you use the program or not, you can still use the template, which was created using the Verdana typeface (my current favorite) and has lots of styles for editorial markup. If you want to use a different typeface with the template, just open the template in Microsoft Word and change the Normal style to the font of your choice. Another approach is to use Times Roman, Verdana, or Georgia in the template you are currently using. You can always change back to the original font when you're ready for final formatting.

You may not have given much thought to selecting a typeface for use in editing, just using whatever your client has used by default. You'll probably find your work easier and more enjoyable if you use a typeface that you like and find easy to read. Why not give it a try?

for a particular purpose, and freedom from infringement. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and use of this document.

The Editorium is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.