For the writers out there (and basically anyone who uses Word to write or edit books, reports, proposals and other business documents), I cannot think of anything that will make your editor or designer love you more than learning how to properly use styles and track changes. (OK, I'll change that a bit to say that I cannot think of any non-grammar related learning that'll do the trick!) I won't go into the HOWs as there are a multitude of sites that do that; I'll concentrate on briefly explaining what these features are and how they can help you 'get the job done'.
StylesNow, you actually use styles all the time whether you know it or not. When you open a Word document, the default style is usually 'Normal'. Styles governs the font, justification, line spacing and basically much of how your document looks. You can modify existing styles and also create your own.
Why should you use styles?Well, let's just say you're working on a massive report. You've methodically gone through and manually created and formatted headings, subheadings, bullet points, etc. Your document looks beautiful!
You've just put the finishing touches on it and are about to pad off to bed when you notice an email from your boss. She
loves the content, but she just wants a few teeny tiny changes, such as changing all of the headings to a different font and colour and 'sprucing up the bullets a bit'.
It looks like your nap is off the cards as you now need to scroll through the entire document and make all of the changes manually. Here's to hoping she doesn't come up with any other 'minor' changes!
If you'd set up your document using styles, you'd only need to change ONE of the headings and the bullet style and the rest of the document would change accordingly. Learning how to do it this way will save you A LOT of time and, quite possibly, your sanity.
After you watch this
demo, you will be astounded by all the things you can do in Word 2007, in particular, with its SmartArt and other great built-in styles.
Track ChangesTrack changes is pretty much what the name says. After you turn it on, it tracks the changes that are made in your document. While you're actually writing, it's probably more of a nuisance to have it on as you'll then see all the things you've changed along the way. However, when you get to the revision stage of your own work, it will be useful as you can then 'roll back' changes that aren't as successful as you'd envisioned by simply rejecting the changes. I also recommend that you keep back-up copies before a major revision, but that's another topic.
After you've finished polishing your work and need to send it off to your editor, work colleague or whomever is helping you get the document ready for publication, it's highly likely that even if you haven't turned track changes on, they will. Good editors know that you'll want to know EXACTLY what they've changed. Therefore, you won't have to waste time checking previous versions to see if the editor has taken out something that just MUST stay. You then volley the document back and forth accepting and rejecting changes until you're both satisfied with the final product.
Why should you use track changes?Ultimately, it's a nice, clean, efficient way to work and certainly beats post-its or volleying a million emails back and forth trying to find out what's changed, etc. This feature saves time, money, energy and probably tears! Give the
demo on this fantastic feature a go.
If you'd like to upgrade to Word 2007 for a
great price (particularly before the end of September), contact The Computer Wholesaler by clicking
here.
OK, I'd better get back to my editing projects, so until we meet electronically or elsewhere, happy styling, tracking, writing and editing!
Regards
Renée
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