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

Editorium Update usually just assumes that you're editing on the computer, specifically in Microsoft Word. But *why* should you edit on the computer? Because, to attain the same level of quality, it's cheaper than editing on paper--cheaper in money, time, and stress. I've heard editors complain that they don't like to edit on the computer because they "miss things." I've got news for them: They miss things on paper, too. In my experience, editors who really understand the advantages of editing on the computer wouldn't go back to working on paper for anything. Here are some of those advantages, particularly in Microsoft Word, which I offer for those who don't understand them or who may need to convince others of their reality:

* Word's Find and Replace features help you attain complete consistency in matters of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation in a relatively small amount of time. To accomplish the same thing on paper, you'd have to comb through a manuscript several times, and even then you wouldn't be sure you'd caught everything.

* Word's Heading styles, Outline view, and Document Map let you see and revise the overall structure of a manuscript in ways that are practically impossible on paper. (Ah, the days of scissors and tape.)

* Word's spell checker makes it possible to catch even the most elusive of typos. It won't find correctly spelled words used incorrectly, but it sure will catch incorrectly spelled words. Editors should use this tool to full advantage.

* Word's macro features let you automate all kinds of nitpicky chores that would take hours to do by hand. I often plead with colleagues, "If you have some tedious, repetitive, mind-numbing editing task, please *tell* me so I can write a macro that will do it for you." Sometimes they do! If you'd like to try some of these macros to make your work easier, visit our Web site at http://www.editorium.com.

* Word's reference features (such as Thesaurus and Look Up Reference) let you instantly find synonyms, check definitions, and much more. In addition, all sorts of reference works are available on CD and online, so you can find information and check facts in a fraction of the time it used to take. One CD product, Microsoft Bookshelf, was made to work with Microsoft Word; it includes The American Heritage Dictionary, The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, and other publications. If you also use Encarta or other CD-based reference works, I recommend that you install at least two CD-ROM drives on your computer for easy access. Better yet, put the electronic reference works directly onto that giant hard drive of yours.

Some useful reference Web sites include:

FreeByte's Guide to Free Online Reference: http://www.freebyte.com/reference/

The Reference Desk: http://rking.vinu.edu/ref.htm

Research Tools: http://www.westwords.com/guffey/research.html

Research-It!: http://www.itools.com/research-it/research-it.html

OneLook Dictionaries: http://www.onelook.com/

Library of Congress: http://catalog.loc.gov/

Encyclopedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com

And, of course, the Internet itself is a marvelous research tool.

* Editing electronically saves time (and thus lowers costs) throughout the production cycle, making you and your company more productive and more competitive. Here's why: If you edit on paper, somebody still has to get your corrections into electronic form for typesetting (and, nowadays, all sorts of electronic publishing). Some companies have typesetters key the whole edited manuscript. Others use the author's word-processor files, with typesetters keying in only the editor's corrections. Either way is a duplication of effort (and thus a waste of time and money), because the editorial changes are being made twice, once on paper and once electronically. Add to that the time and cost of proofreading (and correcting) the typesetter's work, and you begin to see the real extent of the problem. Why not just make the editorial changes electronically to begin with?

"Because," the papyrophiles exclaim, "we don't like making all those little changes on the computer." To which I say, "Why not? You make them on paper. And then check all of them on paper. And then send corrections back to the typesetter. And then check those corrections. You really like that better?" But okay, okay, I don't like making them either, on the computer *or* on paper. That's why I've created tools like FileCleaner, which avoids the whole ugly mess of manually eliminating double spaces between sentences, making sure punctuation following italicized words is also italic, making sure commas and periods are inside of quotation marks, and so on. By automating this kind of stuff, you make it easier to find substantive errors you might miss while messing with the miniscule. Editing on the computer doesn't turn editors into typesetters or technicians. It lets them focus on what good editors do best: grapple with meaning and clarity and communication.

If you're still working on paper, why not do yourself a favor? Learn to use the electronic tools that will make your work better, faster, and more fulfilling. You'll be glad you did.

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.