Beginners Start Here
Beginners Start Here
Beginners Start Here
whole ~200-page document. If you like what you read here, you can take it
further by reading the relevant sections in the main book, and/or follow a few
easy steps to load up a basic set of macros, ready to use.
Also at the end of this file is a ‘menu’ of some of the available macros, to whet
your appetite.
Proofreaders too can benefit greatly from using some of the macros, as explained in the section ‘My six favourite
macros (as a proofreader)’.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/macro-cookbook-for-microsoft-word-jack-m-lyon/1107868228?
ean=9781434103321
But to use the macros in this book, you only need to learn how to load macros into Word – full instructions are given
below. Once the macros are loaded, you just use them.
If you misuse macros, you can produce poor quality text, but macros can’t damage your computer in any way.
Also, you should know that the macros cannot attach themselves to your clients’ files. Your clients will not know
whether you did the job entirely by hand, or whether you were ‘macro-assisted’.
Introduction to macros
To use in this book you do need to know what they look like because, to use a macro, you first have to electronically
copy it (Ctrl-C) out of this book and then paste it (Ctrl-V) into your computer.
Here’s a very simple macro – it’s just a list of instructions plus a beginning and an end:
Sub SwapCharacters()
Selection.MoveEnd 1
Selection.Cut
Selection.MoveLeft 1
Selection.Paste
End Sub
I have highlighted the beginning and the end of the macro in turquoise – the word ‘Sub’ is short for subroutine, which
is another name for a macro or computer program. Each macro has to have a unique name, highlighted here in green.
(You must not have two macros with the same name; if you do, Word will generate the error ‘Ambiguous name
detected’.)
These macros are created in a computer language called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), and they can be run
from within Word. There are VBA macros that work with other Microsoft applications such as MS Excel, but we can
ignore those here. To us, a ‘macro’ means an MS Word macro.
To take advantage of what the macros in this book can do, you need to know where to store them (within the VBA
application) and how to run them from within Word.
(You might hear people saying that it is dangerous to store macros in the Normal template. It is true that there were
once problems with doing so, but that was back in the days of Word 97 and 2003. As far as I’m aware, this hasn’t been
a problem since Word 2007 onwards.)
The macros are stored inside the Normal template, one after the other, in a Visual Basic file called
Normal.NewMacros. Here’s part of my Normal.NewMacros file to show you what the macros look like when viewed
in VBA (please don’t worry about the content of these macros, or what they do – just note the way that they are
stored):
........................................................................................................................................................................
Sub SubscriptSwitch()
' F4
Selection.Font.Subscript = Not Selection.Font.Subscript
End Sub
........................................................................................................................................................................
Sub SuperscriptSwitch()
' F5
Selection.Font.Superscript = Not Selection.Font.Superscript
End Sub
........................................................................................................................................................................
Sub DeleteIt()
' Version
Selection.Delete
End Sub
........................................................................................................................................................................
Sub Mu()
' Version
Selection.TypeText Text:=ChrW(956)
End Sub
........................................................................................................................................................................
Sub FontRemove()
' Version
On Error GoTo ReportIt
Selection.Font.Reset
Exit Sub
ReportIt:
beep
End Sub
........................................................................................................................................................................
Tip: Below, I explain about how to add a macro, but rather than just reading it in theory, why not choose a particular
macro and actually install it. You could try the transpose characters macro that I gave as an example above.
Sub TransposeChars()
Selection.MoveRight 1, Extend:=wdExtend
Selection.Cut
Selection.MoveLeft 1
Selection.Paste
End Sub
It transposes adjacent characters, say from ‘Pual’ to ‘Paul’ – you just put the cursor between the ‘u’ and the ‘a’ and run
the macro.
Adding macros
Macros can be added simply by copying them from this book and pasting them into Normal.NewMacros. So, in this
book, make sure that you select the complete macro, from
Sub Something( )
to
End Sub
and press Ctrl-C to copy it. Then run VBA (see below), decide where to put the new macro and press Ctrl-V to paste it
in. I tend to put new macros down at the bottom of the file, but it really doesn’t matter because Word calls them by
name.
(N.B. This book is arranged as two files: this file has the descriptions of the macros, and the other file, ‘TheMacros’,
has the actual macro listings.)
The difficult thing is knowing how to open Normal.NewMacros in VBA – it is different on different computer
systems!
Macros can be added simply by copying them from an electronic book, from a website or from an email, and pasting
them into a program called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), where they will be stored in the ‘Normal template’,
as it’s called. I’ll try to explain in a number of small steps.
However, you do need to make very sure that you select the complete macro, i.e. from the
Sub SomethingOrOther( )
End Sub
Click on Alt-F8 (Option-F8 on a Mac), and it should open the Macros window. (If not, on Word 2003/4 you can use
the menu: Tools–Macro–Macros, or on 2007 onwards View–Macros.)
In the middle of this window is a list of all the macros that are currently installed in your computer. But of course, if
no-one has yet put any macros in your computer, the list will have no items in it:
Now, in the top box (Macro name:) type the single word Dummy, and click the Create icon (fourth down on the right).
VBA will now open, showing:
Sub Dummy()
'
' Dummy Macro
'
'
End Sub
Once you are familiar with this, there’s a simpler way to add a macro: Press Alt-F8 to open the Macros window, click
on any one of the macro names, click on the Edit button, then you can paste in the new macro. However, you must be
very careful where you put the new macro! You must be careful not paste the new macro inside one of the existing
macros; it must go after and End Sub, and before the next Sub SomethingOrOther. Probably the safest is to
use Ctrl-End to go to the very end of the VBA macros, and paste the new macro in there.
I use the dialogue box for those macros that I use very rarely, but I never use icons (2). I run 99% of my macros from
keystrokes because it’s so much faster than using icons. Once you get more than a small number of icons for macros,
it just becomes impractical to use icons.
“But I can’t remember keystrokes!” OK, let me ask you a question: do you have to remember where the gears are in
your car? If you do something often enough, it becomes automatic. What’s more, there’s a pattern to the gears, which
helps. So I suggest that you make a ‘pattern’ for your keystrokes. Use keys that have some significance to you, and/or
use various key combinations with the F-keys, and put a strip of card with the macro names written on it. For very
frequently used keystrokes, I suggest that you use a key combination that you can press just with your left hand,
and/or keys on the numeric keypad with your right hand – the numeric pad means that it’s less far for you to move
your hand away from the mouse.
Tip: Use the CustomKeys macro to call up the Customize Keyboard dialogue box so that it’s quick and easy to change
your keystroke allocations. Then the trick is as follows: When you try to use a macro that you don’t often use, press
the key combination that you think it might be. Then if that’s not the right one, change the keystroke allocation to that
keystroke. The point is that, for you, that is a more intuitive choice of key combination.
For (b), just click in the ‘Press new shortcut key’ box, press the relevant keystroke and look in the ‘Currently assigned
to:’ line.
If you want to customise the appearance of the macro icon, do the following:
1. With the ‘Customize’ box open, right-click on your macro.
2. Click ‘Default Style’.
3. Right-click again.
4. Choose either an existing icon from ‘Change Button Image’.
5. Or create your own button from ‘Edit Button Image’.
Updating macros
If you have a macro that you are already using, and you hear that there’s a more up-to-date version, how do you make
the upgrade? The important thing to remember is not to delete the whole of the macro, from
Sub Something( )
to
End Sub
If you just delete the old version of the macro, the associated icon and/or keystroke will be lost and you will have to
set it up again.
Instead, just delete the ‘meat’ of the macro, leaving the Sub and End Sub lines, for example:
Sub Citehecker( )
End Sub
Then copy the ‘meat’ of the new macro, i.e. not the Sub and End Sub lines, and paste it in the space that you
have left for it. (Don’t worry about there being extra blank lines – they are totally irrelevant to the working of the
macro.)
Sometimes, when you try to run a macro, it generates an error, and Visual Basic (VBA) asks you what you want to do,
offering you:
If you just want to give up altogether and ignore the idea of using the macro, click ‘End’.
To find out what went wrong – perhaps so that you can report the error to me – the first thing to do is to make a note
of how VBA describes the error. Here’s an example:
MS Word won’t let you copy and paste the error message, but you could perhaps go over to your email software and
start to compose me an email, typing in this error message.
Next, click on ‘Debug’. Debugging is a technique that programmers use to try to work out what has gone wrong with
a program. This will take you into VBA with one of the lines of the macro highlighted in yellow, maybe looking
something like this:
Make a note of the line so that you can report it to me. However, this time, you can do it by selecting a bit of the
macro, either side of the yellow line, copying it, and then pasting it into a Word file (or your email), where it will
appear as ordinary text. But please tell me exactly which line was actually highlighted in yellow – this is important if
you want me to correct the problem.
Next, you have to stop the debugging process, or ‘reset’ VBA. You do this by clicking the Reset button on VBA’s top
tool bar. Look for the set of three icons – as on an AV device: Play, Pause and Stop. The ‘Reset’ button is the square
block, as used for ‘Stop’ on an AV player.
Send me that information, and I’ll see what I can work out.
(If you don’t stop the debugging process and simply go back into Word, all will seem to be OK. However, when you
later try to run another macro, it will generate the error: ‘Can’t execute in break mode’. You then have to click ‘OK’,
select the VBA window and click the ‘Reset’ icon, as mentioned above.)
1) FRedit is the biggest timesaver. Unfortunately, it uses a concept that is new to many editors: scripted find and
replace. It sounds complicated, but it isn’t. However, within this book I have only provided a brief introduction to the
concept, because FRedit has its own set of instructions, plus a library of tools for you to use for a range of different
jobs. (http://www.archivepub.co.uk/documents/FRedit.zip)
2) HyphenAlyse and DocAlyse give me valuable information to help me to prepare my stylesheet for a job. They tell
me what conventions the author has used (more or less consistently). This information helps me to decide what
conventions to use for punctuation and spelling etc. Because I do this before I start reading, it saves me a lot of time.
3) SpellingErrorLister produces an alphabetic list of all the different words in the document that Word’s spelling
checker thinks are spelling errors. You can decide which are or are not spelling errors. You can then use
SpellingErrorHighlighter to highlight some of the words for your attention as you edit, or it can change the spelling
errors for you automatically.
If I also run ProperNounAlyse, the computer will produce a list of pairs of proper nouns that look as if they might be
variant spellings of one another, e.g. Beverly/Beverley.
4) IStoIZ and IZtoIS change and/or highlight all the words in a file that need switching to whichever convention your
client wants. (This is only applies to English language documents.)
5) Highlighting macros – There are several macros for applying highlights of different colours, (selectively) removing
highlights, and searching for text that is highlighted in different colours.
6) InstantFindDown(Up) – If you want to look at the previous or next occurrence of a word or phrase, InstantFind
will take you straight to it – with one single click. The macro also loads this word/phrase into the Find box, so that you
can use Word’s own Ctrl-PageUp and Ctrl-PageDown to go through the various occurrences of this text. And the other
very powerful find macro (FindSamePlace) is where you want to compare the text in two documents. You select some
text in one document, and the macro switches to the other file, goes up to the top of the document and finds the first
occurrence of this text.
7) Text editing macros – This refers to macros for various text editing actions, as you actually read the text. For
example, one macro will change the next number from numerals into words (and another one changes words to
numerals). There are dozens of the text editing macros, so decide which editing actions you use most often, and find a
macro for each of them. You’ll find them in the section: ‘Editing: Text Change’.
8) Scripted word switching – MultiSwitch, WordSwitch and CharacterSwitch are three very powerful and, more
importantly, flexible ways of editing the text. I won’t bother explaining here; just have a look at the three sections
following the heading: ‘Common Word/Phrase Switch’.
9) CitationLister and CitationListChecker – With this pair of macros, I first create a list of all the citations of
references that occur in the text, and then the second macro tries to pair up the citations with the references within the
list. I can then see if there are any citations that don’t have a corresponding reference in the list, or any references in
the list that are not cited in the text. (Often the reference/citation is there, but there’s a spelling error or a mistake in the
date etc.)
10) CommentAddMenu and CommentCopier – Select some text, and CommentAdd copies it, creates a new comment
for an author query, adds ‘AQ:’ and pastes the text inside quotes, ready for you to type in your query. Or
CommentAddMenu does the same sort of thing, but offers you a menu of different standard comments you might want
to use (you can obviously edit this menu of comments according to your own style). Then CommentCopier copies all
the comments in the file, puts them into a separate file and adds an ‘Answer:’ line in between each query and the next,
ready for the author to type in a response.
11) WhatChar – For example, you come to something that looks like a degree symbol, but you suspect that it might
not be. WhatChar checks the ANSI code (a degree is 176), but it also spells out in words what the character actually
is. So, for example, it tells you what each of the following, highly confusable, characters (printed here in Century
Gothic, to illustrate the problem) are: l|I1°ºo. They are: lowercase letter-L, vertical bar, uppercase letter-I and the
number one, then a proper degree symbol, a masculine ordinal (as used in Nº) and a superscripted lowercase letter-O.
12) CountPhrase allows you to select a word or phrase and it tells you how often this occurs in the text. This helps
you to maintain consistency because, for example, you can very quickly check if something is spelt in either of two
variant ways. But it also does both case-sensitive and case-insensitive counts, so you can see if it is capitalised
differently in different parts of the document. (Also, the macro, HyphenSpaceWordCount, counts the number of
occurrences of, say, cow-bell, cowbell and cow bell.)
To gain advantage from macros, you first need to copy and paste the text out of the PDF file(s) and into Word. You
can, of course, search for things in PDF files, but once the text is in a Word file, you can use the following macros:
1) HyphenAlyse and DocAlyse give me valuable information to help me to prepare my stylesheet for a job. They tell
me what conventions the author has used (more or less consistently). This information helps me to decide what
conventions to use for punctuation and spelling etc. Because I do this before I start reading, it saves me a lot of time.
2) SpellingErrorLister produces an alphabetic list of all the different words in the document that Word’s spelling
checker thinks are spelling errors. You can decide which are or are not spelling errors. You can then use
SpellingErrorHighlighter to highlight some of the words for your attention as you edit, or it can change the spelling
errors for you automatically.
If I also run ProperNounAlyse, the computer will produce a list of pairs of proper nouns that look as if they might be
variant spellings of one another, e.g. Beverly/Beverley.
3) IStoIZ and IZtoIS changes and/or highlights all the words in a file that need switching to whichever convention
your client wants. (This is only applies to English language documents.)
4) WhatChar – For example, you come to something that looks like a degree symbol, but you suspect that it might not
be. WhatChar checks the ANSI code (a degree is 176), but it also spells out in words what the character actually is.
So, for example, it tells you what each of the following, highly confusable, characters (printed here in Century Gothic,
to illustrate the problem) are: l|I1°ºo. They are: lowercase letter-L, vertical bar, uppercase letter-I and the number one,
then a proper degree symbol, a masculine ordinal (as used in Nº) and a superscripted lowercase letter-O.
5) CountPhrase allows you to select a word or phrase and it tells you how often this occurs in the text. This helps you
to maintain consistency because, for example, you can very quickly check if something is spelt in either of two variant
ways. But it also does both case-sensitive and case-insensitive counts, so you can see if it is capitalised differently in
different parts of the document. (Also, the macro, HyphenSpaceWordCount, counts the number of occurrences of,
say, cow-bell, cowbell and cow bell.)
6) InstantFindDown(Up) – If you want to look at the previous or next occurrence of a word or phrase, InstantFind
will take you straight to it – with one single click. The macro also loads this word/phrase into the Find box, so that you
can use Word’s own Ctrl-PageUp and Ctrl-PageDown to go through the various occurrences of this text.
Action Result
Read the brief and/or style guide (if provided) and fill in Some items decided on stylesheet (see Appendix 5)
as much as possible of the stylesheet
If the book is in separate files, create an AllWords file All the words (inc. footnotes and text from textboxes),
using MultiFileText but no images, in one file
Run DocAlyse Stylesheet with more decisions, including some items in
the word list, e.g. co(-)operate, learn(t/ed) etc
If no decision on UK/US English, run UKUScount The numbers of UK and US English words, and hence a
language decision
If no decision on is/iz, run IZIScount The numbers of -is- and -iz- words used, and hence an
is/iz decision
Run SpellingErrorLister and SpellingErrorHighlighter Actual spelling errors highlighted; or a list of spelling
errors and corrected words for use with FRedit
Run HyphenAlyse Frequencies of all hyphenated words and of all words
with certain prefixes (anti-, non-, post-, pre- etc)
Run ProperNounAlyse A list of possibly misspelt proper nouns, including
frequencies
For academic jobs, run CitationLister and List of referencing problems
CitationListChecker
Here’s what I do as I start a new book job, if I’m editing. This is clearly a lot more complicated and detailed. I keep
trying to refine this ‘recipe’ each time I edit a job, but it’s far from perfect.
Action Result
Read the brief and/or style guide (if provided) and fill in Some items decided on stylesheet (see Appendix 5)
as much as possible of the stylesheet
If the book is in separate files, create an AllWords file All the words (inc. footnotes and text from textboxes),
using MultiFileText but no images, in one file
Run DocAlyse Stylesheet with more decisions, including some items in
the word list, e.g. co(-)operate, learn(t/ed) etc
If no decision on UK/US English, run UKUScount The numbers of UK and US English words, and hence a
language decision
If no decision on is/iz, run IZIScount The numbers of -is- and -iz- words used, and hence an
is/iz decision
Run SpellingErrorLister List of apparent spelling errors
Read through spelling error list and use SpellingSuggest Spelling errors needing to be changed
to add alternates, e.g. mesage|message, but colour or
highlight words that need checking when I do the actual Spelling queries to be highlighted
read through
Copy and paste any ‘suspect items’ in the proper noun
section of the error list into a separate document for
later use, e.g.
Macmullan List of a few possible proper noun errors
MacMullan
Copy spelling error list to the end of the FRedit list and FRedit items for spelling
run FReditListProcess once with words in the spelling
error list (any case) and once with proper nouns (case
sensitive)
Run HyphenAlyse Frequencies of all hyphenated words and of all words
with certain prefixes (anti-, non-, post-, pre- etc)
Use HyphenationToFRedit to add items to the FRedit FRedit items to correct hyphenation
list that will correct hyphenation (and remember to
record hyphenation decisions in the Words List at the Updated Words List
end of the style sheet)
Pre-editing tools
If you are editing a text, there can be a lot of changes to be made to the file before you actually start reading, and
many of these involve repetitive tasks – just the sort of thing that computers are good at. The most powerful tool here,
FRedit, provides ‘scripted find and replace’, a concept that is new to some editors, for which there’s only a brief
introduction in this book. FRedit has its own, separate documentation. This macro can be very useful even if is used
very simply, but it can also do some extremely time-saving tasks if you are willing to learn to use its more powerful
aspects. The FRedit package comes with a library of tools that other people have developed. This is especially helpful
because many of these special tools use wildcard find and replace.
Other macros in this section do various editing jobs on: tables, frames, textboxes, footnotes and endnotes, bookmarks,
comments and styles. For example, there are macros that pull all the tables and/or figures out into a separate file, and a
macro that creates a list of all the acronyms in a file etc, etc.
Editing: information
These macros provide useful bits of information about the piece of text you are working on.
Editing: highlighting
Coloured highlighting can provide another set of tools to aid the editor: you (or a macro) can use different colours to
highlight different things. These macros allow you to add highlights of whatever colour, and then to move around the
text, looking at the text in the different colours. Also, you can get rid of the highlighting, either in a given area of text,
or selectively by colour; you can remove, say, all the green highlighting while leaving all the rest of the highlighting
intact.
Editing: navigation
When working with text, you want to be able to move around the text, quickly and easily, looking at various bits,
checking them and changing them. So, by using macros, you can jump instantly to, say, another heading of the same
type, to another occurrence of the selected text, to another comment, to the same place in a different file – plus a
whole load of other ways of jumping around the text.
Editing: comment handling
Word’s comment facility can be useful for making notes for yourself or others, and macros can help with adding
comments. It can also collate the comments afterwards to pass on to the author or the typesetter or the client –
especially useful if it’s a multifile job.
Other tools
This final section is just a miscellany of macros – ones that didn’t fit into any other category.
OK, that’s enough to have given you a flavour. If you fancy giving it a go, you could do
worse than downloading the ‘Macro Starter Pack’, from my website. In a few simple steps
this lets you load a basic set of macros into your computer, ready to use, each macro at the
click of a button.
http://www.archivepub.co.uk/documents/StarterPack.zip
Macro Menu – an Overview of Available Macros
The aim of this section is to whet your appetite by offering a macro smorgasbord. The problem with this book is that
there are far too many macros, so how do you know what’s available that you might find useful for your own
particular style of editing? Here I take different topics and simply state what’s available related to that topic (i.e. some
macros appear in multiple sections below). If something catches your fancy, place your cursor in the macro name (in
italic) and InstantFindDown to search for the details.
1. Bookmarks
DeleteAllBookmarks – Deletes all bookmarks
BookmarkTempAdd – Adds temporary marker
BookmarkTempClear – Deletes temporary markers
BookmarkToCursorSelect – Selects from temporary marker to cursor
BookmarkTempFind – Jumps to temporary marker
2. Comments
CommentAdd – Adds a comment
CommentAddMenu – Adds a comment off a menu
CommentPicker – (similar but for PDFs) Copies a comment out of a list of comments
CommentPickerInserter – (ditto) Copies a comment from a list and paste into text
CommentCopier – Creates an author query list, with space for author’s reply
CommentCollectTabulated – Collects all comments into a table
CommentListNumbered – Lists all comments in file with index numbers
CommentNumbering – Adds or removes comment initials and numbers, e.g. [PB1]
AddCommentMarkersInText – Adds comment initials and numbers to text
MultiFileComment – Lists all comments in a set of files
3. Document analysis
UKUSCount – Has the author predominantly used UK or US spelling?
UKUShighlight – Marks US spellings within UK text and vice versa
IZISCount – For UK spelling, has the author predominantly used -is- or -iz- spellings?
(For editing, you can use IStoIZ and IZtoIS to implement your decision.)
ProperNounAlyse – Alerts you to possible proper noun misspellings, showing their frequency
(For editing, FReditCopyPlus can be useful.)
FullNameAlyse – Creates a frequency list of all full names, e.g. Joe Bloggs, K Smith, Paul Edward Beverley
HyphenAlyse – Shows the frequency of word pairs in hyphenated, two-word and single-word form
(For editing, HyphenationToFRedit can be useful.)
HyphenationToStylesheet – Takes items from the HyphenAlyse list, ready for the word list of a stylesheet
WordPairAlyse – Shows the frequency of word pairs that are never hyphenated (e.g. can not/cannot)
AccentAlyse – Compares words that consist of the same letters, but with different accents
AAnAlyse – Highlights a/an errors: a onion, an pear, an union, a hour, a HTML, an UFO, a O, an P, a H, an U
DocAlyse – Counts past participles (-t/-ed), among(st), C/chapter, et al., i.e. etc, focus(s), Fig(ure), Eq(n) etc
FormatAlyse – Highlights various formatting features to make you aware what’s been used
HighlightDuplicateWords – Adds a highlight to any duplicate words in a text, e.g. ‘the the’
DuplicatedWordsFind – Jumps to the next duplicated word pair: ‘the the’ and ‘and and’ etc
FindRepeatedWords – Finds words that are repeated in a given range
TooDifficultWordHighlighter – Highlights any words not included in a given word list
4. Fields
URLlink – Makes the URL/email at the cursor a clickable link
URLlinker – Finds URLs in the text and links them
UnlinkCitationsAndRefs – Unlinks reference citations (ignoring equations)
DeleteAllLinks – Deletes all hyperlinks
DeleteSomeLinks – Deletes hyperlinks that are not URLs
ReferenceCheckWeb – Checks whether each of the URLs in the text appears in the references list
FieldsUnlink – Unlinks all fields except equations
6. File handling
MultiFileCopier – Saves a folder full of files into a new folder, adding ‘_PB_01’ to each name
SaveAsWithIndex – Saves the current file, adding a suffix
OpenMySize – Opens the window to a particular size, position and magnification
MultiFileFRedit – Multifile version of FRedit
MultiFilePDF – Saves a folder full of files as PDFs
MultiFileText – Collects text plus simple formatting from multiple files
MultiFileWord – Concatenates multiple files (i.e. including formatting and images)
MultiFileReferenceCollator – Collects all references (or foot/endnotes) from multiple files
7. Formatting
StrikeSingle – Toggles strikethrough attribute on and off
StrikeAndColour – Adds strikethrough and font colour to selected text
EquationsStrikeThroughAll – Applies strikethrough to all equations in the text
EquationsHighlightAll – Highlights all maths items
SpaceEquationsInPara – Adds spaces to MathType equation in this para if necessary
EquationSpacer – Adds spaces either side of equations that butt up to some text
EquationsConvertAll – Converts all Equation Editor items to their text equivalent
QuotationMarker – Applies strikethrough to all quotes and displayed text to protect them
UnifyFormatBackwards – Makes start of paragraph (or selection) same format as the end
UnifyFormatForwards – Makes end of paragraph (or selection) same format as the start
8. Global changes
FRedit – Does scripted global find and replace
FReditCopy – Copies word to make FRedit list item
FReditCopyPlus – Copies word to make FRedit list item and highlight and case insensitive
FReditCopyWholeWord – Creates FRedit item for whole-word F&R
FReditListProcess – Tidies up a FRedit list from cursor downwards
FReditSame – Creates FRedit item with ^& (i.e. replace with itself, ready for format/highlight change)
FReditListRun – Loads, runs and closes a specific FRedit list
FReditSwap – Swaps the two sides of a FRedit item
HyphenationToFRedit – Takes items from the HyphenAlyse list, ready for the FRedit list
SpellingSuggest – Creates a FRedit list item using Word’s alternate spelling
QuotationMarker – Applies strikethrough to all quotes and displayed text to protect them
MultiChoiceTidierGlobal – Lowercases first word and remove end spaces and punctuation
MultiChoiceTidierSingle – Lowercases initial character of answer and remove end spaces and punctuation
StyleBodyIndent – Adds body style generally, plus ‘No indent’ after headings
IndentChanger – Changes paras of one indent value to another
ComboBoxAccept – Finds combo boxes and replaces them with the currently selected text
CountWordsInHighlightColour – Counts the number of words in a given highlight colour or all highlighted words
HideShowText – Makes body text invisible (therefore emphasises other elements, e.g. text boxes)
11. Internet
URLlauncher – Launches successive URLs from the text
DictionaryFetch – Launches selected text to dictionary.com
GoogleFetch – Launches selected text to Google
GoogleFetchQuotes – Launches selected text – with quotes – to Google
GoogleTranslate – Launches selected text to Google Translate
OneLookFetch – Launches selected text to OneLook
OUPFetch – Launches selected text to OUP
PubMedFetch – Launches selected text to PubMed
ThesaurusFetch – Launches selected text to thesaurus.com
WikiFetch – Launches selected text to Wikipedia
12. Language
UKUShighlight – Marks US spellings within UK text and vice versa
LanguageHighlight – Highlights all text not in main language
LanguageSetUS, LanguageSetUK – Sets language for whole document
13. Lists
SortIt – Sorts the selected text
DuplicatesRemove – Removes duplicate items from a list
SortNumberedList – Sorts numbered list, ignoring the number at the beginning
CitationListSortByYear – Sorts items in a citation list in the text by date
SortListInText – Sorts items in a list in the text alphabetically
SortAndRemoveDups – Sorts the selected text and removes duplicate items
SortCaseSense – Sorts into separate lists: Lcase/Ucase
SortTextBlocks – Alpha sorts blocks of text by first line
ReverseList – Reverses the order of items in a list (just the actual order, not alphabetically)
ListAllColouredWords – Creates an alphabetic list of all words in the selected font colour
ListHighlightedText – Lists alphabetically any text that is highlighted
ListAllLinks – Creates a list of all the URLs in a file, both the visible text and the underlying URL
ListHighlighter – This highlights all ‘short’ paragraphs in a text in order to locate lists
ListOfTextParas – Lists all paragraphs (pure text) starting with certain text
ListOfParas – Lists all paragraphs (formatted text) starting with certain text
ListHighlightedOrColoured – Lists (alphabetically) text with font colour or highlight
14. Notes
NotesEmbed – Embeds footnotes or endnotes
NotesUnembed – Unembeds footnotes or endnotes
NotesUnembedBySections – Unembeds endnotes that are numbered in sections
RenumberNotes – Renumbers all note numbers
RenumberSuperscript – Renumbers all superscript numbers
NoteJumper – Jumps back and forth between notes and main text
FootnoteNext – Jumps to next footnote
FootnoteNextUp – Jumps to previous footnote
FigTableBoxLister – Finds figure/table/box elements and their citations, to spot missing elements
ColumnTotal – Do the numbers in this column agree with the total?
16. References
CitationLister – Creates a list of all citations in the text
CitationListTrimmer – Tidies up ‘funny’ items in a citation list
CitationListChecker – Tries to match citations with references, leaving un matched items highlighted
CitationListSortByYear – Sorts items in an in-line citation list in the text by date
SortListInText – Sorts in-line citations in a list in the text alphabetically
VancouverCitationChecker – Finds all citations and creates a list
ShortTitleLister – Creates a list of the named references in the notes
I’m referring here not to the overall editing process, but that point of the job where you’re actually reading the text and
making changes
MultiSwitch – Switches the word(s) at the cursor with the alternate from your own list
WordSwitch – Scripted single-word switching (less useful than MultiSwitch?)
CharacterSwitch – Scripted character switching
TypeA – Types ‘a’ or ‘A’, (or ‘an’ or ‘An’) between two words
ArticleChanger – Types, deletes or switches articles ‘the’/‘a’/‘an’
TypeThat – Types ‘that’ between two words
ThatWhich – Changes ‘that’ to ‘which’ and vice versa
DeleteWord – Deletes current word, but no punctuation
NumberDecrement – Subtracts one from the following number (or decrease the letter by one, alphabetically)
NumberIncrement – Adds one to the following number (or increase the letter by one, alphabetically)
NumberToFigure – Converts the next number, looking through the text, to a figure
NumberToText – Converts next number into text
TitleHeadingCapper – Uppercases initial letter of all major words in heading (so-called ‘title case’)
TitleUnCapper – Uppercases initial letter of heading only on very first word (so-called ‘sentence case’)
HeadingSentenceCase – Sentence-cases this selection or paragraph (but not acronyms)
TitleInQuotesCapper – Uppercases initial letter of all major words between quote marks (so-called ‘title case’)
AddQuotesAndTitleCap – Puts quotes on sentence, then makes it title case
TitleRemoveQuotesAndCaps – Removes quotes from current sentence, then makes it lowercase
VerbChanger – Changes “(to) splodge” <−> “(of/for) splodging”
SpellingSuggest – Spellchecks the word at the cursor and, if an error, replaces with the alternate
Pluralise – Converts the word at the cursor to its plural form (-s, -oes, ches and -ies)
Hyphenate – Hyphenates two words
PunctuationOffRight – Removes the punctuation off a word end (and quote off beginning)
PunctuationOffNearHere – Removes the punctuation near the cursor
PunctoffBothEnds – Removes punctuation from both ends of a word
FinalCharDelete – Removes the final character or punct off a word
JoinTwoWords – Joins two words
InstantFindDown – Finds selected text (or word at the cursor) downwards, optionally leaving a bookmark
InstantFindUp – Finds selected text (or word at the cursor) upwards, optionally leaving a bookmark
InstantFindDownWild – Finds selected text downwards with wildcards set on
InstantJumpDown – Finds selected text (or word at the cursor) downwards, but not changing the Find text
InstantJumpUp – Finds selected text (or word at the cursor) upwards, but not changing the Find text
19. Spelling
UKUSCount – Has the author predominantly used UK or US spelling?
UKUShighlight – Marks US spellings within UK text and vice versa
IZISCount – For UK spelling, has the author predominantly used -is- or -iz- spellings?
(For editing, you can use IStoIZ and IZtoIS to implement your decision.)
SpellingErrorLister – Generates an alphabetic list of all the different spelling ‘errors’ (according to MS Word)
SpellingErrorHighlighter – Adds various highlights to words in the list that are (or could be) spelling errors
(For editing, SpellingSuggest, FReditCopy, FReditSame and FReditListProcess, SpellingListProcess can
be useful.)
ProperNounAlyse – Alerts you to possible proper noun misspellings, showing their frequency
(For editing, FReditCopyPlus can be useful.)
FullNameAlyse – Creates a frequency list of all full names, e.g. Joe Bloggs, K Smith, Paul Edward Beverley
HyphenAlyse – Shows the frequency of word pairs in hyphenated, two-word and single-word form
HyphenationToFRedit – Creates a FRedit list from a HyphenAlyse file
WordPairAlyse – Shows the frequency of word pairs that are never hyphenated (e.g. can not/cnnot)
AccentAlyse – Compares words that use the same letters, but with different accents
AAnAlyse – Highlights a/an errors: a onion, an pear, an union, a hour, a HTML, an UFO, a O, an P, a H, an U
DocAlyse – Counts past participles (-t/-ed), among(st), C/chapter, et al., i.e. etc, focus(s), benefit(t), Fig(ure), Eq(n)
SpellcheckWordUK – Spellchecks single word UK
SpellcheckWordUS – Spellchecks single word US
21. Textboxes
SetTextBoxStyle – Applies style to all textboxes
TextBoxFrameCut – Removes textboxes and frames
ComboBoxAccept – Finds combo boxes and replaces them with the currently selected text
ShowHideAllTracking – Toggles showing both track changes and comments on and off
ShowHideTracksOnly – Toggles showing just track changes on and off