Introduction

Microsoft Word is one of the most frequently used word processing programs on the market. One of the reasons is that it allows users to easily edit or alter a document. The specific aspects of this program that are related to editing will be examined in great detail in this course.

It is important for an editor to have a firm grasp of this program because the majority of documents that an editor will work on will be in Word. It's also important for you to review this material thoroughly, even if you're very familiar with Word for editing, because it will reveal a few tips and tricks to help you catch errors. Please note that this lesson is based on Word 2010; later versions will be similar, though there may be slight variations in functionality and processes.

Using Track Changes

The Track Changes feature allows editors to keep a record of any alterations they make to a document. Editors use this function to suggest changes to the author⁠(s) of a file. This function is important because, while an editor can suggest changes, the ultimate responsibility for changing a piece of writing belongs to the author. This function makes editors' jobs easier by allowing them to suggest changes without permanently changing the original text. The responsibility to accept or reject these changes still remains with the author(s) of the text. There are four steps to using Track Changes.

• You must tell Word to Track Changes. In Microsoft 2010, this is done by either clicking the Review tab and then clicking the Track Changes icon, or by pressing Ctrl + Shift + E. At this point, Word is now tracking changes.

• You must tell Word to display these changes.

• You must tell Word how to display these changes.

• You must tell Word whether to accept or reject these changes.

Let's examine each of these points in more detail.

Telling Word to Use Track Changes

In order for Word to know that it has to use Track Changes, it has to be told to do so. There are two ways of doing this.

1. Click the Review tab, and then click Track Changes.

2. Press Ctrl + Shift + E.

Doing this will tell Word to turn Track Changes on.

Here is a picture of the Word 2010 toolbar before Track Changes is turned on.

This is a picture of the Word 2010 toolbar after Track Changes is turned on.

Telling Word to Display Track Changes

In order to tell Word to display the changes that will be made during the editing pass, the editor should go to the Review tab and click Show Markup. A drop-down menu will appear. It is important to ensure that the option Insertions and Deletions is checked. If it is not, then the editor won't be able to see the changes he or she has made.

This is what a document would look like if Insertions and Deletions was not checked.

This is what a document would look like if Insertions and Deletions was checked.

Telling Word How to Display Track Changes

In order to tell Word how to display Track Changes, you have to go to the Review tab. In the Review tab, there is a drop-down menu; click it. In that drop-down menu, you will be presented with four different options. The first two (Original and Final) show the document without any visible changes. The next three (Original: Show Markup, Final: Show Markup, and Final) show the document with the changes visible.

ORIGINAL

ORIGINAL SHOWING MARKUP

FINAL SHOWING MARKUP

FINAL

Telling Word How to Accept or Reject Tracked Changes

Restoring Tracked Changes with Compare

One of Word's more interesting features is its ability to compare and combine different documents. Writers find this particularly helpful if they have multiple reviewers examining their work.

For editors, this is a helpful tool in the event that they accidentally lose the changes made to the copy. In this circumstance, the editor would compare the original document with the final document. The resulting document would have the revisions visible. In order to compare the documents, complete the following steps.

• Open Word and click the Review tab.

• Click Compare and select Compare from the options.

• Browse to find the original file in one section and the final, altered file in the other section

• A new window will open with a document that shows all the differences between the two documents.

• You can then save the new document as your tracked copy.

Using the Insert Comment Tool

Word 2010 allows an editor to insert comments in a document. This particular tool is useful for editors to provide in situ commentary and critique to help the client or to query the client. Follow these steps to insert a comment in a document.

• Make sure that the word/phrase you want to comment on is highlighted.

• Click the Review tab in the ribbon. In the Review tab, there is a New Comment button. Click the button.

• A comment box will appear. Type your comment.

• Make sure to save the file you are working on once you've finished typing your comment.

• If you want to delete the comment you've just inserted, click the comment and you can either right click and select delete, or you can select delete from the Review menu in the ribbon.

Special Tricks When Using Spelling and Grammar Check

Word 2010 allows editors to check for spelling and grammatical issues. Even the most thorough editor should run a final Spelling and Grammar check on a document to help catch those last little things.

It is important, however, to ensure you are optimizing the tools so they work well for you.

• You will need to ensure that the Spelling and Grammar check is set to check the whole document, especially when working with documents written by ESL speakers.

• You will need to ensure that Grammar check is "turned up" as high as it can go—that is, that it is set to check for as many issues as possible.

Here's how:

Once your document is open, press the Ctrl and A keys simultaneously to select all the text. Then look at the bottom of your screen where it notes the language setting:

Click the language button to bring up the language screen. Select the version of English the document should be checked for at the top. This is critical for ESL documents because sections of the document might actually be set in, say, Japanese, even if the text is English, and Word will skip over them in the check.

Then make sure the "Do not check spelling or grammar" option is completely clear . . . no check mark and no fill. This will ensure the entire document will be checked.

When you are ready to spell check, click the Spelling and Grammar button on the Review tab.

Then, ensure that Word knows to check the grammar of the document . . .

. . . and click the Options button (shown above) to bring up the Grammar settings.

Finally, press the Settings button to make adjustments to the Grammar checking.

Please note that Word's Spelling and Grammar check is not 100% accurate, and it is important to carefully consider each proposed change.

A Word of Caution

While Word's spelling and grammar check function is somewhat reliable, remember that, because it is only a software program, it cannot consider context. And remember that Word's dictionary does not include the tens of thousands of words that aren't in the average dictionary you can pull off a bookshelf.

If you are editing a science journal article about the cytotoxicity effect of something, chances are there will be quite a bit of terminology that the Word dictionary will not recognize. It might be right, or it might be wrong; as an editor, it is still your job to ensure that the spelling is correct. For example, Word will highlight this spelling as incorrect throughout the document:

• The surface plasmond band

You would need to find out, by searching for the term, whether it is being marked incorrect because it's not in the Word dictionary or because it's genuinely incorrect.

It might also be the case that the word is difficult to type, and it might be correct in some places in the document and not in other areas. The word phthalate is a good example of this. Not only is it likely to be mistyped, but it is also hard to spot whether it is mistyped because of the hth combination in the word. The best approach is to determine the correct spelling and add it to Word's dictionary the first time you see a unique word; spell check will then be able to help you spot variations.

Grammar check has the same kind of problem. The computer cannot "think" contextually. Word will, 99% of the time, encourage a writer to change sentences that are in the passive voice, and 99% of the time this is generally considered to be a good idea. However, there are some very good reasons to use the passive voice. So use caution. Know your grammar rules, and don't rely on Word to do the work for you. Computers may be superior to humans when computing numbers, but a computer that can think situationally is still years away.

Using Research Tools and a Thesaurus

Word 2010 offers both research tools and a thesaurus to help users with their writing. The thesaurus is a helpful tool because it allows editors to quickly find alternative words. Editors also use this tool to strengthen their writing. Here are the steps for using the thesaurus:

• Click the Review tab.

• Highlight the word you want to find an alternative for.

• Click the Thesaurus button.

• A list of potential alternatives will appear in a dialog box.

• Choose the appropriate alternative and click OK.

Alternatively, you could do the following:

• Highlight the word you want to look up.

• Right-click.

• Click Synonyms.

Word 2010 also provides users with research tools. Research tools are particularly helpful for editors working on documents that contain unfamiliar words or concepts. Follow the steps below to use the research function.

• Click the Research button on the Review tab. A drop-down panel will open.

• Select from a choice of three options: All Reference Books, All Research Sites, and Business and Financial Sites. Each category will provide a list of sites that can be used for research purposes.

• Choose the appropriate category; enter the search term in the appropriate field and click Start searching. If you are looking for references, you can choose to get a definition, an alternative, or a translation. If you are looking for research sites, you will receive a number of research web sites that include the term you are looking for. If you are looking into business and financial sites, you will get a list of businesses that use that term frequently.

Using the Navigation Pane

Another one of Word 2010's features is the Navigation Pane. This tool allows editors to do the following:

1. Quickly search for or jump to a particular part of the document, which is especially helpful if they are editing a long document.

2. In a structured document, quickly get an outline view of the rest of the document.

Here's how to use it:

If the Navigation Pane is not already visible, go to View and click the Navigation Pane under the Show heading, or press Ctrl + F. The Navigation Pane will appear on the left side of your screen, but it can be moved to the right side or made to float.

There are three options in the Navigation Pane: a tab for browsing headings, a tab for browsing by page, and a search box with advanced options.

• Choose the most appropriate option, and enter your search term.

• If you choose the tab for browsing headings, Word will return a search that is organized in a hierarchy.

• If you choose the tab for browsing by page, Word will return a search that is organized into pages.

• If you choose the search box with advanced options, Word will return a search where all instances of the term are highlighted. At this point, you can go to the advanced options and chose the one that is most appropriate for your needs.

Using Find and Replace

Use the following steps to use Find and Replace:

• Click the Home tab. Click Replace in the Editing group. This is found on the far right-hand side of the screen.

• In the Find what box, type the term you want to find.

• In the Replace with field, type the term you want to replace.

• Click the Find Next button.

• If the text you are searching for is found, click Replace.

IMPORTANT: As tempting as it might be, never, ever do a Replace All. Remember that computers read instructions very literally, and you may end up causing more harm than good. For example, say a document is talking about a brand name, Catt, but the author of the document was sloppy and referred to it as cat more often than not. In a very long document, you'd be tempted to use Replace All for its simplicity. But the computer would also replace other instances of cat, leaving you with constructions like Cattches (catches) and Catters (caters).

We'll cover advanced Find and Replace in Editing and Proofreading Hacks.

Understanding Styles

In Word 2010, Styles are used to help editors clearly understand the document that they are working on. They are used as formatting instructions that help maintain consistency in the formatting of titles, headings, and subheadings. In order to incorporate a style into the document you are editing, please follow these steps:

• Highlight the text you wish to format.

• In the Style group on the Home tab, move your mouse over each option. As you move your mouse over each option, Word will change the text in the document; at this point, the style has not been set. This is merely a preview.

• When you find a style that you like, click that style. The selected text will now appear in the desired style.

Please note that by right-clicking the selected style, you can modify the particulars of that style, and it will apply that change to all other instances of that style in the document. Should you need to, Word also provides the ability to create new styles.

Creating and Editing a Table of Contents

Now that you understand how to use Styles, you can use Word 2010 to create a table of contents (ToC). A ToC is used to organize writing, and it is typically used in longer documents. You can create a ToC by following these steps:

• Create a blank page in the place in your document where you would like to insert a ToC by inserting a page break. This can be done by pressing Ctrl + Enter.

• Set the major headings in the paper by setting the styles on those headings to Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and so on (or verify this has already been done).

• Go to the Reference tab in the ribbon, and click the Table of Contents button.

• At this point, a menu will drop down with various options. Choose the appropriate option from the menu.

• To make changes to the format of the ToC selected from the menu, click the text you want to edit and make your changes.

• To change the text associated with the ToC (e.g., a header in the document), go to that text in the document and make the necessary changes.

• Click the Table of Contents.

• Click the Update Table button.

Working with Footnotes and Endnotes

Writers use footnotes and endnotes to explain, comment on, or provide references for their documents. There are actually two parts to every footnote or endnote: the reference mark (which can be any value, usually a number) and the corresponding text. In order to insert a footnote or endnote, please do the following:

• Click the References tab in the ribbon.

• In the Footnotes group of the References tab, there are two buttons: "Insert Footnote" and "Insert Endnote." Click the appropriate button. Please note that there are shortcuts that can be used: Ctrl + Alt + F (inserts footnote) and Ctrl + Alt + D (inserts endnote).

• Word 2010 will now insert the appropriate value in a superscript font where the cursor is, and it will either jump to the bottom of the page (for a footnote) or to the end of the document (for an endnote).

• Type your text.

• Click anywhere on the main body of the text to exit the footnote.

• If you need to edit the content of the footnote, double click it and make your changes.

Please note that if you delete a footnote or an endnote, or insert one before an existing footnote or endnote, Word 2010 will automatically update the remaining footnotes/endnotes with the appropriate values.

Working with Headers and Footers

Headers and footers can add an element of panache to any document. Some style guides actually require the use of headers and footers. In order to insert a header or a footer, please follow these steps:

• Click the Insert tab on the ribbon.

• Click either Header or Footer. A drop-down menu will appear.

• Choose either a blank header or footer, or use one of the templates.

• Type the desired information in the header or footer.

• Press Escape.

To edit a header or footer, double-click it and make your changes. There is no need to make the same change on every page of the document. Once a change is made on one page, this change is visible on all pages where the header or footer has been added.

Please note that you can customize headers and footers. Again, when customizing headers and footers, Word 2010 will automatically update all headers and footers in the document. There is no need to alter each one.

Summary

Word is a powerful tool. It has capabilities many writers don't even know exist. Luckily, you know about them, and you know how to use them. Track Changes is the first tool with which you, as an editor, should familiarize yourself. Following this, the Spelling and Grammar check is your next "best friend." Finally, Find and Replace is probably one of the most useful tools when making a series of changes to related text. Making use of Word's Style toolbar helps ensure that formatting is streamlined and consistent.

While getting to know these tools takes time, each version of Word incorporates more userfriendly changes to its interface. Learning to use all of Word's resources will make you a better editor.

Last Updated: 09/29/2022