This week, just for fun (and for review), I've created a quiz. Use it to rate your skill in editing on the computer, using 1 as the lowest level ("I never do this") and 5 as the highest ("I always do this"):
1 2 3 4 5 I use styles and eschew manual formatting.
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1711522967
1 2 3 4 5 I use keyboard shortcuts and avoid reaching for the mouse.
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1703361394
1 2 3 4 5 I use spell check as a way to catch typographical errors.
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1700310413
1 2 3 4 5 I use AutoCorrect and AutoText to speed up text entry.
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1705865120
1 2 3 4 5 I use find and replace, including wildcards, to fix repetitive errors and inconsistencies.
http://www.editorium.com/ftp/adancedsearch.zip
1 2 3 4 5 I use customized templates and styles to format documents.
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1700934923
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1705536230
1 2 3 4 5 I customize Word's menus, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts to fit the way I work.
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1707444986
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1707286867
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1707100224
1 2 3 4 5 I record macros to perform repetitive tasks.
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1706651129
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1706748016
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1706832239
1 2 3 4 5 I use other macros and add-in software to provide features not available in Word alone.
http://www.topica.com/lists/editorium/read/message.html?mid=1707012536
1 2 3 4 5 I consciously seek to learn more about editing in Microsoft Word.
http://www.editorium.com/euindex.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/
Scoring
Total the scores for all of the questions. Then find your ranking:
10-20 Clueless newbie. Review the information available through the links above.
20-30 Typical editor. Review the information for any items you rated 3 or below.
30-40 Editing expert. Review the information for any items you rated 3 or below.
40-50 Word guru. To reach the ranks of the truly elite, learn to *program* Word macros using Visual Basic for Applications. You can get started here:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MacrosVBA/VBABasicsIn15Mins.htm
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READERS WRITE
After reading last week's article "What's Your Handle," an anonymous reader wrote:
As a veteran of many find-and-replace operations, I enjoyed your article about "handles" and I thought that that's a very good way of explaining the concept. However, in this particular example, if I had been doing it, I would have first selected all the text in the document and made it all Body Text. In this way, I wouldn't have had to do your last step.
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RESOURCES
Holy smoke! Look at all the online reference works at Bartleby.com!
http://www.bartleby.com/reference/
