Copying and Pasting Styles

If you frequently use styles (which you should) to format your documents or specify text levels for typesetting, you're probably aware that you can press CTRL + SHIFT + S to activate the style list. (Then you can scroll through the list to get the style you need.)

You may not be aware, however, that you can easily copy and paste styles (both paragraph and character styles), just as you can copy and paste text. If you've never done this before, it will make you smile. Here's the procedure:

1. Put your cursor on some text formatted with the style you want to copy (Heading 1, for example).

2. Press CTRL + SHIFT + C (just like the keyboard shortcut for copying text, but with the SHIFT key added).

3. Move your cursor to (or select) the text you want to format with the style you just copied.

4. Press CTRL + SHIFT + V (just like the keyboard shortcut for pasting text, but with the SHIFT key added).

The text will be formatted with the style you copied.

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READERS WRITE

Jeff Ross sent the following macro to clean up text copied into Word from an email message. Thanks, Jeff!

Sub CleanMyMessage()
' CleanMyMessage Macro
' Macro recorded 3/11/02 by Jeff Ross
'Remove angle brackets with spaces
With Selection.Find
.Text = "> "
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
'Remove other angle brackets
With Selection.Find
.Text = ">"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
'Remove spaces before paragraph breaks
With Selection.Find
.Text = " ^p"
.Replacement.Text = "^p"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
'Mark true paragraph breaks with unique character
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "^p^p"
.Replacement.Text = "?"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
'Replace other (false) paragraph breaks with spaces
With Selection.Find
.Text = "^p"
.Replacement.Text = " "
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
'Replace unique character with paragraph break
With Selection.Find
.Text = "?"
.Replacement.Text = "^p"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
'Turn double hyphens to em dashes
With Selection.Find
.Text = "--"
.Replacement.Text = "^+"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
'Turn straight single quotation marks into curly ones
'Note: For this to work, the AutoFormat option
'to replace straight quotes with curly quotes must be on
'(Click Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoFormat As You Type >
'Replace as you type > straight quotes with smart quotes)
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "'"
.Replacement.Text = "'"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
'Turn straight double quotation marks into curly ones
'Note: For this to work, the AutoFormat option
'to replace straight quotes with curly quotes must be on
'(Click Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoFormat As You Type >
'Replace as you type > straight quotes with smart quotes)
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = """"
.Replacement.Text = """"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

If you don't know how to use macros like this one, you can learn how here.

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RESOURCES

Dan A. Wilson, expert online editor and proprietor of The Editor's Desktop, provides several useful resources for editors, including:

* a basic FTP tutorial (if you need to transmit electronic manuscripts to clients)

* suggestions for choosing anti-virus software

* a discussion of freelancers' rates

* a recommended list of reference works (printed and electronic) for editors

* a low-tech guide to Wintel computer maintenance

* information about installing a firewall on your computer

You can read Dan's articles here:

http://www.editorsdesktop.com/articles.html

And you can check out his editing services here:

http://www.editorsdesktop.com/index.html