{"id":6342,"date":"2022-05-25T12:55:16","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T18:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/?p=6342"},"modified":"2023-04-07T11:38:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T17:38:34","slug":"review-geoff-harts-write-faster-with-your-word-processor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/review-geoff-harts-write-faster-with-your-word-processor\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Geoff Hart&#8217;s Write Faster with Your Word Processor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I've been a fan of Geoff Hart\u2019s books and articles since 2007, when I reviewed the first edition of his book&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/geoff-hart.com\/books\/eoe\/onscreen-book.htm\"><em>Effective Onscreen Editing<\/em><\/a>. The beauty of that book is that it applies to&nbsp;<em>any<\/em>&nbsp;software an editor might use. As Geoff explained then, \u201cThe overall goal is to teach editing strategies, not specific software.\u201d However, in his latest book,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/geoff-hart.com\/books\/write-faster\/write.htm\"><em>Write Faster with Your Word Processor<\/em><\/a>, Geoff changes his approach in three ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The book is aimed primarily at writers rather than editors, including writers of fiction. (Geoff is well known for his&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/geoff-hart.com\/articles\/bibliography.html\">technical writing<\/a>, but he\u2019s also the author of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/geoff-hart.com\/fiction\/index.htm\">several novels and short stories<\/a>.)<\/li><li>The book focuses mainly on writing with Microsoft Word. Why? As Geoff explains, \u201cI\u2019ve provided Word-specific examples because most writers use Word. Moreover, I\u2019ve learned from teaching many workshops that it\u2019s necessary to make general strategies concrete, and Word does a great job of showing how to implement those strategies.\u201d<\/li><li>The book isn\u2019t as concerned with being&nbsp;<em>effective<\/em>&nbsp;as it is with being&nbsp;<em>fast.<\/em>&nbsp;It\u2019s packed with useful tips and advice to help you spend less time fighting with your computer and more time actually writing. Geoff promises, \u201cI\u2019ll teach you how to improve your existing skills and learn new ones. As you master these skills, you\u2019ll find yourself focusing more on the craft of writing and less on the tools themselves. That means you\u2019ll write better and faster, with less need for revision.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Like all of Geoff\u2019s books, this one is&nbsp;<em>thorough<\/em>\u2014I mean&nbsp;<em>really<\/em>&nbsp;thorough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part 1, \u201cGet started,\u201d&nbsp;explains how to personalize your computer to fit the way you work, with an emphasis on something many writers overlook: hardware. Geoff covers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Choosing a good monitor.<\/li><li>Choosing a good keyboard.<\/li><li>Choosing a good mouse.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I can\u2019t emphasize enough how important these are. But Geoff takes all of this a step further, covering your computer\u2019s overall behavior, keyboard settings, mouse settings, language settings, and display settings. Then he explains how to organize your files, part of the book I'll be reading in more depth (not that I have any problems with organization). Finally, he talks about developing safeguards: security considerations, backing up your work, updating software, protecting your work with passwords, and protecting yourself from computer-related injury and other problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part 2, \u201cWrite your first draft,\u201d&nbsp;focuses on getting your words out of your head and into your word processor, again with an emphasis on speed. \u201cWrite first, edit later,\u201d&nbsp;as the saying goes. Geoff explains in detail how to develop and use a strong outline (with a nod to those who prefer not to). Then he covers Microsoft Word\u2019s features that are especially useful for writing (including some you probably don\u2019t know about) as well as settings that you might want to change. Out of the box, Microsoft Word is set up to produce business memos and family newsletters; it is definitely&nbsp;<em>not<\/em>&nbsp;set up for serious writing. But the beauty of Word is that it\u2019s practically infinitely customizable, so why not turn it into a lean, mean writing machine? Here, Geoff explains how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not going to go into much more detail about what the book includes; you\u2019ll find a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/geoff-hart.com\/books\/write-faster\/toc.html\">detailed table of contents<\/a>\u00a0on Geoff's website. I\u2019ll just say that part 3 explains how to revise your writing once you\u2019ve got it down (<em>now<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s time to edit), and part 4 includes more detailed information and resources to help you back up your work and avoid stress injury, as well as a list of helpful keyboard shortcuts. The book ends with a glossary of publishing terms, a link to an online bibliography for those who want more information about a particular area, a collection of helpful internet resources, and an index that, like the rest of the book, is amazingly thorough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Geoff writes, \u201cMy goal is NOT to teach you the writer\u2019s craft; there are many better books for that purpose. The goal is NOT to teach you how Microsoft Word works; Word is just one of many alternatives you can use.\u201d&nbsp;What, then, is the book\u2019s purpose? \u201cMy goal,\u201d&nbsp;Geoff says, \u201cis to teach you&nbsp;<em>how to write using a word processor.<\/em>\u201d&nbsp;And in that, he succeeds beautifully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Write Faster With Your Word Processor<\/em>&nbsp;is one of the most comprehensive books I\u2019ve seen about how to write on the computer. At 352 pages (548 for the PDF version, which includes screen shots), it\u2019s not for the faint of heart. But, as Geoff says, \u201cI\u2019ve provided the information in small chunks, designed for easy reading and browsing. You can dip into the book to solve a specific problem, or read it a chapter at a time to increase your mastery.\u201d&nbsp;I\u2019ll be keeping the book near at hand for those very purposes, and I recommend that you do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Geoff makes it easy to buy the book. You can&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/geoff-hart.com\/books\/write-faster\/write.htm#buy\">learn more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bibliographic information:<\/strong>&nbsp;Hart, G. 2021.&nbsp;<em>Write Faster With Your Word Processor<\/em>. Diaskeuasis Publishing, Pointe-Claire, Quebec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Printed version: 352 pages, including index. ISBN 978-1-927972-29-8<\/li><li>PDF version (suitable for most tablet computers and very large phones): 548 pages, including index. ISBN 978-1-927972-30-4<\/li><li>EPUB version: (unpaginated) ISBN 978-1-927972-31-1<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/review-geoff-harts-write-faster-with-your-word-processor\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permalink to Review: Geoff Hart&#8217;s Write Faster with Your Word Processor\"><p>I&#8217;ve been a fan of Geoff Hart\u2019s books and articles since 2007, when I reviewed the first edition of his book&nbsp;Effective Onscreen Editing. The beauty of that book is that it applies to&nbsp;any&nbsp;software an editor might use. As Geoff explained then, \u201cThe overall goal is to teach editing strategies, not specific software.\u201d However, in his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[74,20,1523],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-book-review","7":"category-books","8":"category-writing","9":"h-entry","10":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3gfno-1Ei","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6342"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6396,"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions\/6396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorium.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}