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Editorium Update 2008/06/19: The Notes That Wouldn't Die, Part 2
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The Editorium
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Jun 19, 2008 14:39 PDT
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______________________________________________________
EDITORIUM UPDATE
Tips for Publishing Professionals Using Microsoft Word
June 19, 2008
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CONTENTS
Feature Article: The Notes That Wouldn't Die, Part 2
Readers Write: Geoff Hart on deleting notes with tracked revisions
Resources:
ToolbarToggle
wordsnSync: Seriously--if you haven't yet looked at it, you're missing
out.
FreeRice
_____________________________________________________
Indexing in Microsoft Word? Check out DEXter:
http://www.editorium.com/dexter.htm
Indexing in Sky INDEX, CINDEX, or MACREX? Check out DEXembed:
http://www.editorium.com/dexembed.htm
Still working the hard way? Get your work done easier and faster with
Microsoft Word add-ins from the Editorium:
http://www.editorium.com
_____________________________________________________
Which editing book should I get? There's "Making Word Work for You: An
Editor's Intro to the Tool of the Trade," by Hilary Powers:
http://www.the-efa.org/res/booklets.html
There's also Geoff Hart's "Effective Onscreen Editing":
http://www.geoff-hart.com/home/onscreen-book.htm (electronic version)
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fStoreID=1505747 (printed version)
Ooh, ooh, I just can't decide. Wait, I know! I'm getting BOTH of these
wonderful resources--and so should you!
In addition, watch for my book Microsoft Word for Publishing
Professionals, coming out this fall.
_____________________________________________________
Got books? Get even more from Waking Lion Press!
http://www.wakinglionpress.com
_____________________________________________________
The Notes That Wouldn't Die, Part 2
By Jack M. Lyon
The previous newsletter included a macro for editors who use Microsoft
Word's revision-tracking feature in documents with footnotes. The macro
was designed to strike out the text of deleted notes--but only at the
*end* of the editing process, after the editor has deleted any
unnecessary note references. So then I started thinking: "Why not make a
macro that strikes out the note text *each time* a note reference is
deleted?"
So here it is:
Sub FootnoteDelete()
'Courtesy of The Editorium, www.editorium.com
If Selection.Information(wdReferenceOfType) = 1 Then 'Footnote
If Selection.Type = 1 Then 'Text is not selected
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1,
Extend:=wdExtend
End If
If ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = True Then
Selection.Footnotes(1).Range.Delete 'Delete the note's text
Selection.Delete 'Delete the note reference
End If
End If
End Sub
If you don't know how to use such macros, you can learn how here:
http://blog.editorium.com/2001/05/30/using-found-macros/
The macro works by checking to see if your cursor immediately precedes a
footnote reference. If it does, the macro selects the reference.
Next, the macro checks to see if revision tracking is turned on. If it
is, it deletes the *note text* for the currently selected footnote
reference. Then it deletes the reference itself. In both cases, the text
is struck out as a revision rather than removed completely.
If your cursor doesn't precede a footnote reference, or if you haven't
selected text including a footnote reference, the macro does nothing.
(Handy!)
If text is already selected, the macro checks to see if the selection
includes a footnote reference. If it does, the macro proceeds to carry
out its work. Please note, however, that if you've selected text that
includes *more than one* footnote reference, the macro will delete only
the note text of the *first* footnote in the selection. Moral: Don't try
to use the macro to delete more than one note at a time.
For ease of use, you may want to map this macro to a key combination. I
recommend the Insert key, which sits just above your Delete key and
usually just causes problems, at least for me. Here's how:
1. Click Tools > Customize > Commands > Keyboard.
2. In the Categories window, scroll down to and select "Macros."
3. In the "Macros" field, scroll down (if necessary) to the macro you
want and select it. Any previously assigned keys now appear in the
"Current keys" field.
4. Put your cursor in the box labeled "Press new shortcut key."
5. Press the key or key combination you want to use (Insert, for
example).
6. Click the "Assign" button.
7. Click the "Close" button.
Now if you need to delete a note while revision tracking is turned on,
press the Insert key. Both the note reference and the note text will be
marked as deleted.
If you need a macro for endnotes rather than footnotes, here you go:
Sub EndnoteDelete()
'Courtesy of The Editorium, www.editorium.com
If Selection.Information(wdReferenceOfType) = 2 Then 'Endnote
If Selection.Type = 1 Then 'Text is not selected
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1,
Extend:=wdExtend
End If
If ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = True Then
Selection.Endnotes(1).Range.Delete 'Delete the note's text
Selection.Delete 'Delete the note reference
End If
End If
End Sub
If you need a macro for both footnotes and endnotes, you can just cobble
the two macros together (apologies to Steve Hudson, who would want me to
do better):
Sub NoteDelete()
'Courtesy of The Editorium, www.editorium.com
If Selection.Information(wdReferenceOfType) = 1 Then 'Footnote
If Selection.Type = 1 Then 'Text is not selected
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1,
Extend:=wdExtend
End If
If ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = True Then
Selection.Footnotes(1).Range.Delete 'Delete the note's text
Selection.Delete 'Delete the note reference
End If
End If
If Selection.Information(wdReferenceOfType) = 2 Then 'Endnote
If Selection.Type = 1 Then 'Text is not selected
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1,
Extend:=wdExtend
End If
If ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = True Then
Selection.Endnotes(1).Range.Delete 'Delete the note's text
Selection.Delete 'Delete the note reference
End If
End If
End Sub
___________________________________________
READERS WRITE
After reading about "The Notes That Wouldn't Die" in the previous
newsletter, Wordmeister Geoff Hart offered an opposing point of view
that is well worth considering:
-------------------------
In the current issue, you wrote: "Editors who use Microsoft Word's
revision-tracking feature in documents with footnotes (or endnotes) have
often complained of an annoyance: If you delete a note (which you should
do only by deleting the reference mark in the text), the reference mark
is struck out, but the *text* of the note itself is *not* struck out. .
. . Why Microsoft hasn't fixed this problem in, lo, these many years is
beyond me."
The exact same thing occurs with comment markers and the associated
text, and it's driven many an author to premature baldness due to
frustrated hair-pulling. (I used to have to explain this to one of my
pet authors pretty much every manuscript we worked on together, at least
twice per year.) From that perspective (that is, based on the number of
people it confuses), it's a bad design choice.
Seen from another perspective, however, this is actually a *good* design
feature: When you delete a comment or note marker using revision
tracking, the meaning is clear: "delete this marker *and* all the
associated text." But if deleting the marker automatically removed the
text, and the author decided that (contrary to the editor's advice) they
wanted to retain the footnote, then there would be no easy way to
recover the footnote text. Given Word's byzantine file format, possibly
even no way at all to get it back. Seen in this light, Microsoft wisely
decided to delete the marker but retain the text--at least until you
accept the deletion. At that point, text and marker both do what they're
supposed to do: go away.
So why not use the strikethrough format to mark all the note's or
comment's text to show that it's been deleted? Because sometimes one or
more edits may have been inserted in the note or comment text. If Word
marked both the original text and any inserted text as deleted, you
wouldn't be able to distinguish those edits from the original text: both
would be marked as deleted. Leaving the original format untouched lets
the author see what was done without having to use the Reviewing toolbar
to work through the note or comment, one change at a time, accepting or
rejecting each change individually without knowing when to stop.
So yes, it's a confusing feature, but there's method to its madness.
-------------------------
I wrote back to Geoff for further clarification, and he kindly provided
the following:
-------------------------
In Word X, the note is marked for deletion, but the text is left in
whatever state it was in before you deleted the marker. That's a good
thing in my eyes, not a bug or oversight.
If you delete a note or comment marker by intent or by accident, a
single keystroke would (invisibly) delete the entire content of that
footnote, which can run many paragraphs or even pages in length. (You
wouldn't believe some of the footnotes I've seen.) It's very easy to
miss a single-character deletion, particularly if you're working (like
many of us do) in Normal view, where the footnote text is invisible
unless you open the Footnote pane. This is also (not coincidentally) why
it takes two presses of the delete key to mark a footnote or comment for
deletion: a clever safety feature. Of course, it doesn't protect you
against deleting markers by block-selecting the text that contains them.
This problem doesn't exist for regular text, or at least is less likely
to become fatal, because the deletion is much more obvious: if you
inadvertently select an entire paragraph and press the Delete key,
you'll see an entire paragraph formatted as strikethrough. That change
is sufficiently dramatic that you have time to undo the change by
Control-Z(apping) it.
There's probably a clever way to make the feature work better (i.e.,to
delete both the marker and the text without losing any embedded edits),
but it would take a bit of thought to figure out how this might work.
The current awkward situation is a tradeoff between non-transparency and
protecting users from errors.
-- Geoff Hart
http://www.geoff-hart.com
-------------------------
Many thanks to Geoff! If you have questions, hints, or comments you'd
like to share, please send an email message here:
mailto:edi-@editorium.com
_____________________________________________________
RESOURCES
ToolbarToggle
Many of the articles in this newsletter have explained how to customize
Word for specific publishing tasks--something that was fairly simple
before the release of Microsoft Word 2007 with its navigation "ribbon."
In Word 2007, customization is difficult, so you may be wondering if my
customization articles are still relevant. Fortunately, they are, as
long as you first install the ToolbarToggle add-in:
http://www.toolbartoggle.com/
The price is currently a measly $19.95, and if you're using Word 2007, I
highly recommend that you download and purchase this program. If you use
it for nothing more than the customization tips in this newsletter, it
will still pay for itself many times over. In addition, it automatically
recreates the menus and toolbars of earlier Word versions (but leaves
the ribbon intact), which will be of great help as you use this
newsletter, which frequently refers to those menus and toolbars. If you
don't care about customization (what?!?) but would still like to have
the earlier menus and toolbars, the ToolbarToggle download includes a
free "lite" version that provides just this.
If you're using Word 2008 (Macintosh), you're out of luck, as Microsoft
has removed macro support completely from this version of Word. Enough
people have complained about this, however, that it will probably come
back in the future:
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/13/vba-to-return-in-next-version-of-microsoft-office-sp1-released/
If you simply want to learn about Word 2007's ribbon equivalents to the
earlier menus and toolbars, you can do so online with the Word 2003 to
Word 2007 interactive command reference guide:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx
For quick reference, here are some of the most frequently used menu
items in this newsletter and their equivalents in Word 2007:
Tools > Customize. There is no real equivalent in Word 2007. You can,
however, customize the Quick Access Toolbar by clicking Office Button >
Word Options > Customize.
Tools > Templates and Add-ins. The equivalent is Office Button > Word
Options > Add-Ins. Then select Manage: Templates at the bottom of the
dialog and click the Go button.
Tools > Macros. On the ribbon, click View > Macros.
Tools > Options. Click Office Button > Word Options > Advanced.
----------------------------------------
wordsnSync
If you've been reading Editorium Update very long, you'll recognize the
name of Richard H. Adin, who frequently contributes useful tips for the
Readers Write column. Rich has recently released a Microsoft Word
add-in, EditTools, that works very well with those I offer at the
Editorium. His add-in is both useful and ingenious. You'll find it here:
http://www.wordsnsync.com/edittools.php
Rich sent me the following explanation about two specific EditTools
features, and if you're an editor, you'll want to pay close attention:
----------------------------------------
The MultiFile Find & Replace works similar to your MegaReplacer in that
it replaces all instances of a word or phrase in all documents in a
directory. However, MultiFile Find & Replace is complementary to
MegaReplacer. MegaReplacer works when you have a known list of changes
you want to make globally; MultiFile Find & Replace is designed to do
the replacement as you come across it while editing and to do one
replacement at a time.
Smart Highlighter does the typical highlighting. For example, if you
want to highlight "gizmo," it highlights all instances of "gizmo." But
the reason it is "smart" is this: Suppose you come to "Escherichia coli"
in a manuscript. You want to note that you have (1) already seen it
spelled out and that (2) when you come to "E. coli," there is no need to
spell it out. If you select "Escherichia coli" and run Smart
Highlighter, all of the subsequent instances of the following will be
highlighted--
Escherichia coli
E. coli
Escherichia
--giving you visual cues that subsequent instances of "Escherichia coli"
should be changed to "E. coli" and that "Esherichia" has already been
spelled out, as well as that "E. coli" is okay because it has been
previously spelled out.
----------------------------------------
Now those are both *very* cool features. Imagine this: You're editing
along and come to a misspelled name. You fix it in the current chapter,
but then EditTools fixes it in *all the other chapters,* so when you
open one of them to start working, the misspelling is already fixed!
Yeah, I'll definitely be using that one.
I know what you might be thinking: "How come you're promoting a
competitor's product?" Simple: It's a great product! And Rich has been a
great supporter of mine over the years. Other than that, I'm not getting
anything out of this. So what are you waiting for? Check out EditTools
today!
http://www.wordsnsync.com/edittools.php
____________________________________________________
Feed the hungry and test your vocabulary--everybody wins! My high score
is 47. What's yours?
http://www.freerice.org
If you'd like to share a resource that others might find useful:
mailto:resou-@editorium.com
____________________________________________________
HELP WANTED
If you need help with Word, there are actually lots of places to go.
Some of the best include:
Allen Wyatt's WordTips:
http://WordTips.VitalNews.com
The Word-PC List:
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/word-pc.html
The McEdit list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McEdit/
Microsoft's Word discussion groups:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/FlyoutOverview.mspx#13
(Look in the lower right of the page.)
The Word MVP site:
http://word.mvps.org/
Woody's Lounge:
http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/postlist.pl?Cat=&Board=wrd
But if you can't find what you need in those places, send your question
here:
mailto:he-@editorium.com
I'll put your question in the newsletter to see if some astute reader
knows the answer.
_____________________________________________________
I *love* SpamArrest. After unsuccessfully trying to fight the battle
against junk email with a couple of top-notch programs, I decided to try
SpamArrest, and I'm thrilled to say it's actually won the war. Boy, has
my email been quiet! When people send me an email message, they receive
a message in return asking them to click a link to register themselves
(a one-time operation) as someone who can send me email. Spammers, of
course, won't bother to do this, which basically means no more spam!
It's easy to preregister family, friends, associates, and email
newsletters. The online program (no software installed on your computer)
provides complete control over how spam is handled, and it's very easy
to use. You can try SpamArrest for 30 days at no charge. To learn more,
click here:
http://spamarrest.com/affl?1403707
And if you decide to sign up, please do so through that affiliate link.
Your support will help keep Editorium Update alive and kicking. Thanks!
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Editorium Update (ISSN 1534-1283) is published by:
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