Expanding Your Toolbox to Make
Yourself a More Productive Editor
Kelly Schrank

• Disclaimers
• Word Add-ins
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Quick Access Toolbar
• Editing Tools Tab
• Auto Correct List
• Spell Check Dictionaries
• Navigation Pane
• Find and Replace (wild cards and simple macros)
• Editing Checklists
Agenda
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Disclaimers
3
This presentation is not comprehensive
I am showing tips, tools, methods that I find easy to use; there are other
ways to accomplish what I am showing
I do not represent Microsoft or any company mentioned
I am not running a workshop
I am an editor who uses the software, add-ons, and tools mentioned in this
session
I am not a Word expert; I work in O365 Word on a PC

• Associate Fellow of STC
• Member of American Medical Writers Association
(AMWA), Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS)
• Technical writer and editor for over 20 years in variety of
industries
• Medical editor for 9 years in pharmaceutical industry
• Currently Head Bookworm at Bookworm Editing Services
• Niche: Editing formulary dossiers
• Consistency, Structure, and Clarity
• Microsoft Word
Kelly Schrank
4

Word Add-ins
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https://intelligentediting.com/
https://www.grammarly.com/

Keyboard Shortcuts
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Operation Shortcut
Open Word Count Dialog box Ctrl + Shift + G
Left align text Ctrl + L
Format a letter to subscript Ctrl + +
Format a letter to superscript Ctrl + Shift + +
Insert an endnote Ctrl + Alt + D

Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) – Default
vs Mine
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QAT – Text Styles
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QAT – Paragraph Indent & Spacing
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QAT – Para Keep with Next
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Editing Tools tab
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Editing Tools tab
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• Bullets
• Define New Number Format
• Find
• Format Painter
• Styles
• Save
• Smart Lookup

Auto Correct List – Misspelled Words
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Auto Correct List – Symbols
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Symbols Shortcut
≥ _>
≤ _<
± _+
 (check)
Symbols Shortcut
© ( c )
™ ( tm )
® ( r )

Custom Dictionary
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Exclusion Dictionary
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Navigation Pane
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• Searches for words and phrases are SO much easier
with Results tab

Navigation Pane
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• Rearrange sections from
Headings tab
• Word will move everything
within that heading
• Word will renumber
headings

Navigation Pane
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• Additional options to
add headings before
and after allow you to
plan for the future of
the doc

Find and Replace - Advanced
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• Favorite
o Match case

Find and Replace - Advanced
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• Format
oHighlight
• Special
oEn dash

Find and Replace - Wildcards
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Wildcard What it Finds / What it Does
? Any single character
[-] Any single character in the specified range
< The beginning of a word
> The end of a word
( ) Groups wildcards together
[!] Any single character except those specified (ie, not)
{ , } Occurrences of the previous character
@ One or more of the previous character or expression before something else
* Any string of characters

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Find and Replace - Wildcards

Find and Replace - Wildcards
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Find and Replace – Wildcard Ranges
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• [0–9] represents any digit.
• [a-z] represents any occurrence of a lowercase
letter.
• [A-Z] represents any occurrence of an uppercase
letter.
• [A-z] represents any occurrence of any letter.

Find and Replace – Wildcard Ranges
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Find and Replace - Macros
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Find and Replace - Macros
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Old Way Steps
• Pull up Find and Replace
• Type in “ one ” in Find
box
• Type in “ 1 ” in Replace
box
• Click Find Next and go
through each one
• When done…start again
with “ two”
• Do this 8 more times
New Way Steps
• Turn on track changes
• Press macro key
• In Changes section of
Review tab, change Show
Markup to Specific Person
> You
• Click Next and Previous to
accept and reject all of the
number changes at once
Find and Replace - Macros

Editing Checklists
✓ No back and forth with style guide
on simple questions
✓ No forgotten steps
✓ Deliberately skipped steps are
documented
✓ Enhanced productivity
Consistency
✓ Stay on task
✓ Stop and start with less loss of focus
and more confidence
✓ Consistency of your process
provides a nice rhythm to task
✓ Track metrics and accurately
estimate future projects
Productivity

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Editing Checklists

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Editing Checklists

Checklists
Editing Checklists
• How to create an editing checklist handout:
https://www.slideshare.net/kellyschrank/how-to-
create-an-editing-checklist
Checklists for Communications Tasks:
• Video: https://www.single-
sourcing.com/events/checklists-increase-productivity/
• Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/kellyschrank/using-
checklists-to-increase-consistency-and-productivity-in-
communication-tasks-lone-star

• Delwood, Robert. The Secret Life of Word (Laguna Hills, CA: XML Press), 2011.
• Lyon, Jack. Wildcard Cookbook for Microsoft Word (West Valley City, UT: The Editorium), 2012.
• Lyon, Jack. Macro Cookbook for Microsoft Word (West Jordan, UT: The Editorium), 2015.
• Marchese, Lauren. “How Checklists Train Your Brain To Be More Productive And Goal-Oriented.” Trello
website. https://blog.trello.com/the-psychology-of-checklists-why-setting-small-goals-motivates-us-to-
accomplish-bigger-things
• “Microsoft Word Masterclass Guides.” Ideagen website. https://www.ideagen.com/word-masterclass
• Pinola, Melanie. “How to See All of Microsoft Word's Keyboard Shortcuts.” January 29, 2016. Laptop
website. https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/see-all-word-keyboard-shortcuts
• Saller, Carol. “Let’s Make a Macro!“ Subversive Copy Editor website.
https://www.subversivecopyeditor.com/blog/2012/08/lets-make-a-macro.html
• Schrank, Kelly. “How to Create an Editing Checklist.” SlideShare website.
https://www.slideshare.net/kellyschrank/how-to-create-an-editing-checklist
• Wyatt, Allen. “Editing_Custom_Dictionaries.” Tips.net website. November 24, 2018.
https://word.tips.net/T001038_Editing_Custom_Dictionaries.html
References
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What will you be
adding to your toolbox?
• Buy Word Add-ins
• Implement an Editing
Tools Tab
• Implement Editing
Checklists
Takeaways
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How can you be more
productive?
• Use Keyboard Shortcuts
• Quick Access Toolbar
• Customize Auto Correct List
• Customize Custom and
Exclusion Dictionaries
• Take Find and Replace to a
New Level

Feel free to contact me with questions:
Kelly Schrank
Technical Writer / Medical Editor / Checklist Specialist
kelly@headbookworm.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyschrank/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bookworm-editing-
services-llc
https://headbookworm.com/
Thank you for attending!
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