Special Edition Using Microsoft Word and Excel in Office Making the Most of Word s Proofing Tools

Transcription

1 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 1 of 15 [Figures are not incuded in this sampe chapter] Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Making the Most of Word s Proofing Toos In this chapter Using Automatic Speing and Grammar Checking Disabing or Hiding Automatic Speing and Grammar Checking Checking Speing Through the Speing and Grammar Diaog Box Reproofing a Document You've Aready Checked Controing Speing Settings Custom Dictionaries for Custom Needs A Coser Look at the Grammar Checker Using the Word Thesaurus Counting a Document's Words, Pages, Lines, and Characters Dispaying Readabiity Statistics Troubeshooting Using Automatic Speing and Grammar Checking By defaut, when you open a fie in Word 2000, Word's new automatic anguage feature checks the text to determine which anguage you are writing in. It then runs a spe and grammar check on a sections that are written in anguages for which it has proofing toos. Since you probaby write most documents in your defaut anguage, Word typicay proofs your entire document. Word fags a possibe errors with wavy underine marks, as shown in Figure 3.1. Potentia speing errors are marked with a red wavy underine--incuding words not in Word's dictionary, repeated words, apparent errors in capitaization, and combinations of words with the spaces missing. Word fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

2 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 2 of 15 fags potentia grammar errors with a wavy green ine. Figure 3.1 Potentia speing and grammar errors fagged automaticay by Word. To resove an individua potentia speing error, right-cick on the fagged word. A shortcut menu appears (see Figure 3.2), isting any suggestions Word may have about the correct speing, as we as a set of choices that depend on the error Word has found. If Word has found a word that does not appear in its dictionary, your choices incude Ignore A. Tes Word to disregard a occurrences of the speing within the current document (and to stop dispaying them with red underine). Add. Tes Word to add the speing to your custom dictionary; after you add it, Word won t fag the speing as an error anymore, in any document that uses the same custom dictionary. AutoCorrect. Enabes you to seect a way to correct your speing and add it to your AutoCorrect fie, so Word can automaticay make the same correction every time you make this mistake from now on. Language. Enabes you to mark the word as being in another anguage. If you have proofing toos instaed for that anguage, Word uses those proofing toos automaticay to check the word. If you do not have the appropriate proofing toos, Word wi skip the word--in other words, the word wi not be marked as a potentia error. Speing. Opens Word s spe checker diaog box, which may provide more aternative speings than the shortcut menu, and can aow you to save a new word in a different custom dictionary, if you have one. For more information about custom dictionaries, see "Custom Dictionaries for Custom Needs." Figure 3.2 You can access Word s most commony used proofing features from the Speing and Grammar shortcut menu. If Word shows a green wavy underine indicating a possibe grammar error, right-cick to see the grammar shortcut menu. Word may propose choices, as in Figure 3.3, or make genera suggestions. You can aso Instruct Word to Ignore the sentence Open the Grammar checker to see more options Choose About This Sentence to see more information about the potentia error Word has fagged Figure 3.3 In some cases, Word presents a specific suggestion for soving the grammar probem. For more information about grammar checking, see "Checking Your Document s fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

3 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 3 of 15 Grammar." You can aso resove errors without using the shortcut menu by simpy editing the text. Word checks the word or sentence again as you move your insertion point away from it, and if the word is now speed correcty or the sentence now uses correct grammar, the corresponding wavy underine disappears. To quicky find the next speing or grammar probem, doube-cick the Speing and Grammar Status icon on the status bar, or press At+F7. NOTE: In Word 2000, Microsoft has increased the size of the speing dictionary, improved the speing and grammar suggestions it offers, and attempted to reduce the number of "fase positive" grammar errors that were reported in Word 97. If you are upgrading from a version of Word earier than Word 97, you wi aso notice _severa additiona improvements. The Word spe checker now recognizes the names of a countries, United States cities over 30,000 in popuation, a Fortune 1000 companies, and a much wider seection of first names. By defaut, the spe checker no onger fags words in uppercase etters, words containing numbers, URLs, Universa Naming Convention names for network ocations (such as \\server\sharename), emai addresses, registered usernames, and organization information. In addition, Word 2000 s AutoCorrect feature has been enhanced to correct more of the most common speing errors and typos writers make. Together, a these improvements shoud mean that proofing wi take significanty ess _time and cause much ess aggravation than it once did. Disabing or Hiding Automatic Speing and Grammar Checking Automatic speing and grammar checking isn t everyone s cup of tea. Many peope appreciate the way it catches typos and other inadvertent errors as they make them--without going through the troube of a forma speing or grammar check. Others find it distracting and want to turn it off immediatey--especiay the grammar checker, which has improved but is sti far from perfect. The feature aso sows down Word sighty. If you prefer not to use automatic spe checking or automatic grammar checking, you can easiy turn off one or both of them. Choose Toos, Options, and cick the Speing & Grammar tab. Then, to disabe automatic spe checking, cear the Check Speing as You Type check box. To disabe automatic grammar checking, cear the Check Grammar as You Type check box. When you re finished, cick OK. You can aso dispay Speing & Grammar options by right-cicking the Speing & Grammar Status icon on the status bar, and choosing Options from the shortcut menu. For more information about speing options, see "Controing Speing Settings" fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

4 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 4 of 15 In arge documents with many potentia errors, Automatic Speing and Grammar Checking sometimes turn themseves off, dispaying a prompt that they can no onger dispay wavy green or red ines in your document. Another option is to enabe Word to keep checking the document but prevent it from dispaying the potentia probems with red or green underines. You can aso do this from the Speing & Grammar tab of the Options diaog box. Check the boxes Hide Speing Errors in This Document and Hide Grammatica Errors in This Document. Later, when you check the document s speing or grammar using the Speing and Grammar diaog box, the process goes faster because Word has aready found the potentia errors. Or, when you re ready, you can cear these check boxes and fix a your potentia errors at once from within the document. Checking Speing Through the Speing and Grammar Diaog Box In addition to the streamined speing and grammar toos Word makes avaiabe through the shortcut menu, Word provides a powerfu speing and grammar checking diaog box that gives you even more options for fixing your current document--and improving the way you check future documents. To access it, cick Speing and Grammar on the Standard toobar, or press F7. The Speing and Grammar diaog box opens, dispaying the first potentia error it finds (see Figure 3.4). Figure 3.4 The Speing and Grammar diaog box, showing a speing error and offering _suggestions. Word dispays both speing and grammar errors in the Speing and Grammar diaog box. If you want to check ony speing, cear the Check Grammar with Speing check box. The sentence containing the potentia probem appears in the Not in Dictionary scro box; the incorrect word appears in red. You now have severa options: If one of the words shown in the Suggestions ist is correct, cick Change; Word changes the speing to match that suggestion. If you want Word to change the speing wherever it appears in the document, cick Change A. If you want Word to add the correction to its AutoCorrect database, so Word can fix the error as soon as you make it from now on, cick AutoCorrect. If the word is speed correcty, and you want Word to add it to the custom dictionary (so the word wi never be fagged as wrong again), cick Add. If Word hasn t made any acceptabe suggestions, but you know how to fix the error manuay, fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

5 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 5 of 15 edit the word in the Not in Dictionary scro box, and cick Change (or Change A or AutoCorrect). ë For more information about AutoCorrect, see Chapter 4, "Automating Your Documents: AutoCorrect, AutoFormat, AutoText, and AutoSummarize." No matter which option you choose, Word foows your instructions and automaticay moves to the next potentia error it finds. If you've chosen to proof ony part of your document (by seecting that part of the document before running spe check), Word offers to proof the rest after it finishes. Otherwise, it reports that the speing and grammar check is compete. ë For more information about proofing portions of a document, see "Proofing Ony Part of a Document." If a change you make to fix a word or syntax error affects surrounding text, you can edit any part of the sentence that appears in the Not in Dictionary scro box--not just the incorrect portion. Or, if you prefer, you can cick inside the document and make your edits there. The Speing and Grammar diaog box remains open. When you finish, cick inside the diaog box and cick Resume. Why Proofreading Is Sti a Necessity Incorrect usage and misspeings are unprofessiona. Unfortunatey, running a spe check isn't enough to sove the probem: Proofread your documents manuay, as we. For exampe, spe checkers--even those with associated grammar checkers, ike Word's--often miss homonyms. If you misspe "sight" as "site," odds are Word won't fag the probem. Proofing Ony Part of a Document Word enabes you to check your entire document or any part of it, incuding just a singe word. If you don't want to check your entire document, seect ony the text you want to check--even if it's just a singe word. You can aso te Word to never proof a portion of your document. To do so, seect the text you don't want proofed. Next, choose Toos, Language, Set Language. The Language diaog box opens. Check the Do Not Check Speing or Grammar check box, and cick OK. This turns off both speing and grammar: You can't te Word to avoid spe checking part of a document whie sti grammar checking it (or vice versa). Undoing Speing or Grammar Changes You Just Made You can aways undo your most recent speing or grammar changes (except for adding words to a custom dictionary). From within the Speing and Grammar diaog box, cick Undo. If you've aready finished spe checking, you can sti cick the Undo button on the Standard toobar to undo one change at a time, starting with the ast change you made. Reproofing a Document You ve Aready Checked fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

6 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 6 of 15 If you proof a document a second time, Word doesn t recheck the speing of words (or the syntax of sentences) you aready proofed. If you want Word to catch previousy caught errors, reopen the Speing and Grammar Options diaog box (either choose Toos, Options and cick the Speing & Grammar tab or cick the Options button inside the Speing and Grammar diaog box) and cick the Recheck Document button. Word asks you to confirm that you want to recheck text you ve aready proofed; choose Yes. Controing Speing Settings The Speing & Grammar tab of the Options diaog box (see Figure 3.5) gives you extensive contro over how you interact with Word s spe checker. You can dispay this diaog box by cicking the Options button in the Speing and Grammar diaog box, or by choosing Toos, Options, and cicking the Speing & Grammar tab. You ve aready earned about the first two options in this diaog box: Check Speing as You Type and Hide Speing Errors in This Document. Word aso offers you severa additiona contros: Aways Suggest Corrections. Word s speing suggestions are often inaccurate in highy technica documents or documents that contain a ot of arcane jargon. For such documents, to save time, you might want to disabe Word s suggested speings feature. Suggest from Main Dictionary Ony. By defaut, Word ooks in a open dictionaries to make suggestions about speing changes. This can take time. It aso means that Word may recognize as correct certain words that are actuay incorrect when read in context. If you re sure your current document won t benefit from words you added to your custom dictionaries, check this box. Ignore Words in UPPERCASE. No spe checker understands a acronyms. Because most acronyms are a caps, you can te Word not to fag words that are a caps. (This feature is turned on by defaut.) Figure 3.5 You can contro the behavior of speing and grammar from the Speing & Grammar tab of the Options diaog box. Ignore Words with Numbers. Some product names combine words and numbers. Suppose that you se a 686MX computer, a DX677 CD payer, and a KFE100 fire extinguisher. Word might fag each of these as incorrect--a rea probem if you re proofing a ong price ist. Therefore, by defaut, Word ignores word/number _combinations. Ignore Internet and Fie Addresses. Unti recenty, most spe checkers have incorrecty fagged Internet fie addresses such as the Web address or the fiename c: \windows\system.dat. If you eave this check box checked, Word doesn t spe check addresses such as these. The Speing & Grammar tab can contro one additiona aspect of Word spe checking: custom dictionaries. These are covered next. fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

7 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 7 of 15 Custom Dictionaries for Custom Needs When you use Word s spe checker to add words to your dictionary, Word stores these in a custom dictionary fie caed CUSTOM.DIC. It then consuts CUSTOM.DIC whenever you run a spe check--thereby making sure that it doesn t fag words as incorrect that you indicated are accurate. If you wish, you can aso create other custom dictionaries--up to ten--for specia purposes. For exampe, if you do ega editing on ony Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can maintain a ega custom dictionary and use it on ony those days. The foowing sections show you how to work with Word s custom dictionaries. Creating a New Custom Dictionary To create a new custom dictionary, choose Toos, Options, Speing & Grammar, and cick Dictionaries. The Custom Dictionary diaog box appears (see Figure 3.6), isting custom dictionaries that aready exist. Dictionaries that are currenty enabed--in other words, dictionaries Word is currenty using in spe checking--appear checked. Figure 3.6 The Custom Dictionaries diaog box shows the custom dictionaries being used during a speing and grammar check. To create a new dictionary, cick New. The Create Custom Dictionary diaog box opens, which is simiar to a standard Save As diaog box. Enter a name for your dictionary and cick Save. The dictionary now appears checked in the Custom Dictionaries diaog box. Note that words you add to custom dictionaries during a spe check are paced in whichever enabed custom dictionary is isted first. Disabing a Custom Dictionary From the Custom Dictionaries diaog box, you can aso make a custom dictionary unavaiabe by cearing its check box. Whie the dictionary is unavaiabe, keeping it in the ist aows you to make it avaiabe again without first browsing your system to ocate it. To make the dictionary disappear entirey from the ist of dictionaries, seect it and cick Remove. Note that this doesn t erase the dictionary fie; you can use the Add button to ocate it, pace it back on your ist, and make it avaiabe again. Choosing a Custom Dictionary Whie Spe Checking Suppose, during a spe check, that you find a word that you want to add to a custom dictionary other than the defaut CUSTOM.DIC fie that Word normay uses. To seect a different custom dictionary 1. Make sure the word you want to add appears highighted in the Speing and Grammar diaog box. 2. Cick Options. fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

8 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 8 of Cick Dictionaries. 4. Seect the custom dictionary you want to use, and make sure it is checked. 5. Cick OK twice to return to the Speing and Grammar diaog box. 6. Cick Add to add the word to the dictionary you ve seected. Any additiona words you add to the custom dictionary wi be paced in the dictionary you ve seected, unti you choose a different one. 7. Continue checking speing and grammar as usua. If you want to add words to a different custom dictionary, change the custom dictionary by foowing steps 1-5 again. Editing a Custom Dictionary Whie you re spe checking, it s easy to mistakeny add words to the custom dictionary that shoudn t be there. If you do enter words in a custom dictionary by mistake, however, it s easy to deete them. You can aso manuay add ists of words to a custom dictionary--you don t have to wait for them to show up in your documents. For exampe, you might want to add the ast names of a the empoyees in your company or the company names of a your cients. Word dictionary fies are ASCII (text ony) ists of words with a.dic extension. When you open a custom dictionary, you can add as many words as you want--either manuay, or by cutting and pasting them from another fie. The ony imitation is that you must save the fie as Text Ony (TXT) and pace ony one word on each ine. Word stores words in custom dictionaries in aphabetica order, with a capitaized words appearing before a owercased words. However, you do not need to store your words in this order--you can insert them any way you want. Word reorganizes your ist automaticay the next time you add a word to this dictionary during a spe check. To edit a custom dictionary, dispay the Speing & Grammar tab of the Toos, Options diaog box; then foow these steps: 1. Cick Dictionaries. 2. Seect the dictionary you want to edit. 3. Cick Edit. 4. Word dispays a diaog box teing you that it must stop automatic spe checking, and that you have to re-enabe it manuay. Cick OK to acknowedge this. 5. The dictionary opens in a new Word editing window. 6. Make your edits, and cick the Save button on the Standard toobar. fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

9 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos.. Page 9 of Choose Fie, Cose to cose the dictionary fie. If you cannot edit your custom dictionary, see "What to Do If You Can t Edit Your Custom Dictionary," in "Troubeshooting" at the end of this chapter. When you edit a custom dictionary, Word turns off automatic speing and grammar checking. After you cose the dictionary fie, you must turn these features on again. Do so by choosing Toos, Options, cicking the Speing & Grammar tab, and pacing checks in the Check Speing as You Type and Check Grammar as You Type check boxes. Fagging "Correct" Words as Potentia Errors Occasionay, you might want to have the spe checker fag a word as a possibe misspeing even though the word is in the dictionary. Imagine that you noticed you often mistype "iar" as "ira," both of which are speed correcty. Because you write crime noves, not reports on European currency exchange, woudn t it be nifty if the spe checker woud aways question ira as a misspeing, rather than assume that you know what you re doing? You can t remove a word from Word s basic dictionary. You can, however, create a suppementa fie caed an excude dictionary, which incudes words you want to fag as probems even if they re speed correcty. When you create an excude dictionary, a your Office appications wi use it, fagging the words in the excude dictionary as possibe errors even if they are actuay correct. Like custom dictionaries, excude dictionaries are ASCII fies with one word on each ine. Excude dictionaries use the same fie name as the main dictionaries with which they re connected, except they have an EXC extension. They are stored in the same foder as the main dictionary. If you re using the defaut dictionary for American Engish, the name of the excude dictionary you create wi be MSSP3EN.EXC. In Office 2000, the defaut ocation for the excude dictionary is the foowing path: _<winversion> \<profie>\appication data\microsoft\proof, where <winversion> is your main Windows foder, and <profie> is the user profie associated with this instaation of Office. Since this is a different ocation from the ocation used by previous versions of Office, if Word is instaed over an existing version, your preceding custom and excude dictionary fies wi be copied to the new proof foder. To create an excude dictionary, edit it manuay and save it as Text Ony with the correct name and extension in the correct foder. (Make sure Word doesn t append a TXT extension to the fiename, or it won t work.) Communicating with Word: Avoid Cipped Words When working in an industry with its own jargon, it is easy to fa into the trap of using truncated or cipped words: saying "ab" instead of "aboratory," or "specs" instead of "specifications." When writing, use the forma word, uness you re positive the cipped version wi be understood by your audience. For instance, if you re communicating with a coeague in your aboratory, "ab" is fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

10 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos..Page 10 of 15 acceptabe; if you are communicating with a Congressman investigating your safety procedures, it isn t. As cipped words are not abbreviations, they shoud not be foowed by periods, nor preceded by apostrophes. Never use cipped "sang," ike thru (through) and nite (night). A Coser Look at the Grammar Checker Word s grammar checker, ike a contemporary grammar checkers, foows rues that identify potentia writing probems. Word s grammar checker has graduay been refined; however, it sti cannot "understand" your documents, so it s best to have modest expectations. On a good day, the grammar checker might peasanty surprise you--catching things you woud never have noticed. On another day, it may fag many "errors" that are, in fact, not errors at a. Later in this chapter, you earn to personaize the grammar checker to catch ony the types of errors you actuay make, with fewer fase aarms. Checking Your Document s Grammar As you earned earier in this chapter, Word fags potentia grammar probems as you work, dispaying them with a green wavy underine. To get Word s suggestions, right-cick anywhere in the underined text. Word dispays either potentia soutions or a genera description of what it thinks is wrong. For exampe, in Figure 3.7, Word recognizes that you ve used the wrong word--"their" instead of "there." Figure 3.7 Viewing Word s suggested soutions for a potentia grammar probem. If you don t agree with Word s grammar checker, cick Ignore, and the green wavy underine disappears. If you want to take a coser ook at your document s grammar, choose Grammar. The Speing and Grammar diaog box opens, with the questionabe phrase dispayed in green (see Figure 3.8). The text box is named after the rue Word beieves you have broken. Figure 3.8 The Speing and Grammar diaog box, dispaying a potentia grammar error. Word dispays possibe improvements in the Suggestions scro box. The category of probem it has identified appears above the fagged text. Often, none of Word s suggestions are idea; you can then edit the text manuay unti the green wavy underines disappear. It s aso possibe that you won t agree there s a probem at a. To te Word to ignore the sentence, cick Ignore. To te Word never to fag probems for the same reason it fagged this one, cick Ignore Rue. To eave the sentence aone without making any decisions, cick Next Sentence. Word foows your instructions and moves to the next potentia error it finds--either a speing or a grammar error. If you ve chosen to proof ony part of your document, after Word finishes, it offers to proof the rest. Otherwise, it reports that it has finished proofing. If Word keeps checking grammar during a spe check even after you ve turned it off, see "How to fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

11 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos..Page 11 of 15 Competey Disabe Grammar Checking," in "Troubeshooting" at the end of this chapter. Avoiding the Passive Voice Word s grammar checker is especiay usefu for detecting sentences written in a passive voice. In amost a cases, active voice is superior, for two reasons. First, passive voice is wordier and usuay more convouted. Second, it is often ambiguous and uninformative. One key to avoiding passive voice is to avoid the use of the word "it" whenever possibe. For exampe, don t say: "it has been reported." Rather, say "three of our top customers report." Strategies for Making Grammar Checking Work More Effectivey Word s grammar checker contains 26 fundamenta rues that it can check in your document, ranging from identifying the passive voice to recognizing ciches. Word has incorporated five writing styes into its grammar checker, which proof based on varying combinations of these rues. These five writing styes are: Standard, Casua, Forma, Technica, and Custom. For exampe, Word s buit-in Casua stye checks documents against ony five rues, whereas Forma checks for 24 of 26 rues-- excuding ony gender-specific and first-person usage. You can change the settings for any of these writing styes to appy a "mix and match" of grammatica rues to the grammar check of your document. Word provides a Custom writing stye you can use to buid the rues you want to use for the way you write. One strategy for deciding how to dea with the grammar checker is to run a fu grammar check on a few of your documents, noticing which type of errors you make most often, and then customize the grammar checker to fag ony those errors. The grammar checker is especiay good at catching passive sentences, subject-verb disagreements, incorrect punctuation, and ciches. Writing stye preferences are stored with tempates, so you can set different preferences for different tempates. Once you ve done so, the appropriate settings are automaticay used when you create a document based on the tempate. For exampe, you can make sure that contracts are proofed using the Forma stye whie your persona correspondence is proofed using Casua by seecting the correct tempate for each document. For more information about creating tempates, see Chapter 1, "Tempates, Wizards, and Add-Ins." Choosing Which Writing Stye to Appy The easiest decision you can make about grammar checking--aside from whether to use it at a--is which writing stye to appy. To match Word s grammar checking stye with the type of documents you create, choose Toos, Options; then cick the Speing & Grammar tab. In the Writing Stye dropdown ist box, choose Standard, Casua, Forma, Technica, or Custom; then choose OK. Choosing Which Rues of Grammar to Appy You can edit any of Word s five writing styes. You might generay ike one of Word s existing fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

12 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos..Page 12 of 15 writing styes, but you want to tweak it a bit. Or you might want to create your own Custom writing stye from scratch. To edit a writing stye, dispay the Speing & Grammar tab of the Options diaog box, and cick Settings. The Grammar Settings diaog box opens, as shown in Figure 3.9. Then, foow these steps: 1. In the Writing Stye drop-down box, choose the writing stye you want to edit. Notice that the Custom writing stye highights every potentia probem except the use of first- person anguage. 2. Check the boxes corresponding to rues you want the grammar checker to enforce; cear the boxes corresponding to rues you want to ignore. 3. When you re finished, cick OK. Figure 3.9 The Grammar Settings diaog box gives you contro over how Word checks your grammar. For an exceent expanation of Word s grammar and stye rues, cick the Office Assistant, and ask: "How do I set Grammar and Writing Stye Options?" If you ater decide that you woud prefer to use Word s defaut grammar settings, reopen the Grammar Settings diaog box, choose the writing stye you want to reset, and choose Reset A. Additiona Grammar Settings Word s grammar settings incude three settings you may be interested in even if you never use grammar checking for anything ese. They are isted at the top of the Grammar and Stye Options scro box in the Grammar Settings diaog box: Comma Required Before Last List Item. Some individuas swear by seria commas; others swear against them. If you re a professiona writer, you may find that some of your cients fee each way, making it very easy to make mistakes! You can instruct Word to make sure you aways use a seria comma before ast item a ist, or make sure you never use one, or ignore the issue competey (don t check). Punctuation Required with Quotes. You can specify whether you prefer to pace punctuation inside or outside your quote marks, or whether Word shoud ignore how you punctuate quotes. Spaces Required Between Sentences. If you are of a certain age, your typing teacher taught you aways to pace two spaces between sentences. Now, in this era of typeset and desktop pubished documents using attractive fonts, the standard has changed: You shoud generay use one space between sentences. You can use this setting to specify one or two spaces between sentences, or to instruct Word to ignore the issue _atogether. You might decide that one or more of these three settings are a the grammar you ever want to check. In that case, create a Custom Writing stye with a the Grammar and Stye Options boxes ceared, and with the settings of your choice for commas, punctuation, and spaces between sentences. Using the Word Thesaurus fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

13 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos..Page 13 of 15 As you write, you may sometimes find yoursef getting into a rut--using the same word or phrase repeatedy when another word might make your point more ceary. That s what a thesaurus is for. Word 2000 comes with a significanty enhanced thesaurus--one that you might find much more effective than the version you ve used before. To use the thesaurus, right-cick on the word for which you woud ike to see synonyms (simiar meanings), and choose Sy nonyms on the shortcut menu (see Figure 3.10). Or, seect the word and press Shift+F7. Seect an option to use in pace of the existing word. Figure 3.10 Choosing a synonym from the shortcut menu. Word may need to insta the thesaurus the first time you use it. If you don t ike any of the options Word presents, and you want to expore more, choose Thesaurus from the shortcut menu. Word s Thesaurus diaog box opens, dispaying a ist of synonyms--often a onger ist than the one you aready saw (see Figure 3.11). Figure 3.11 Looking up a synonym for a word. If the word you want to ook up isn t in the document yet, cick on a bank area in the _editing window, and press Shift+F7. Word dispays the Thesaurus diaog box with a its text boxes empty. The word you seect appears in the Looked Up combo box. To the right, in the Repace with Synonym box, Word proposes the most ikey equivaent term. The exampe in Figure 3.11 asks for synonyms for the word "pace," and Word provides "put" as the most ikey synonym. It aso provides severa additiona aternatives in the Repace with Synonym scro box. When you find the synonym you re ooking for, seect it, and cick on the Repace button. Word substitutes the synonym for the origina word in your document. The thesaurus aso enabes you to find synonyms for the particuar usage of a word that can be used in mutipe senses. For exampe, in Figure 3.11, the word "pace" can be used in severa senses, which are isted in the Meanings box. If you want to use it as a noun ("That was a great pace we had dinner.") you might seect "ocation (n.)" in the Meanings box. When you do, new synonyms for "put" appear in the Repace with Synonym box to the right: "space," "spot," "area," and so on. When Word presents a ist of synonyms, you might decide you woud ike to review the meanings and synonyms of one of those words. To do so, seect the synonym and then cick the Looked Up drop-down ist box. Sometimes you might foow a trai of severa suggested repacements before arriving at the word you want. If you want to return to a previous thesaurus request, you can. Cick the down-arrow on _the Looked Up drop-down ist box to show a the requests you ve made since opening _the Thesaurus diaog box. Cick on the word you want, and the synonyms for that word reappear. Finding Antonyms In many cases, the Word thesaurus can show you antonyms (opposite meanings) of a word or phrase. fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

14 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos..Page 14 of 15 Antonyms are foowed by the word Antonym in parentheses. As with synonyms, you can seect an antonym and cick Repace to pace it in your document. When Word Can t Find a Synonym or Antonym Sometimes Word can t find a synonym for a word. Then, in case you might have misspeed it, Word presents you with an aphabetica ist of words with simiar speings. If you speed the word wrong, you can pick the correct word from this ist and search Word s thesaurus for its synonyms. Counting a Document s Words, Pages, Lines, _and Characters Often, you need to count the words, characters, ines, paragraphs, or pages in your document. For exampe, in creating your document, you might have been given a word imit you aren t permitted to exceed. To get an accurate estimate of your document s current size, choose Toos, Word Count. Word reads your document and dispays the Word Count _diaog box (see Figure 3.12). Figure 3.12 The Word Count diaog box. By defaut, Word does not incude footnotes and endnotes in its count. If you want them incuded, check the Incude Footnotes and Endnotes check box; Word recounts immediatey. TIP: Word dispays an approximate character count in the status bar whenever it opens an existing document. You can aso count words, characters, paragraphs, and sentences by running Readabiity Statistics, as discussed in the next section of this chapter. Counts of pages, paragraphs, ines, words, and characters are aso avaiabe through the Statistics tab of the Fie, Properties diaog box. TIP: You can t print the resuts from the Word count diaog box, but you can use the NumChars, NumPages, and NumWords fieds to insert that information in your document. The project at the end of Chapter 18, "Automating Your Documents with Fied Codes," shows how to buid a cover sheet that incudes this and other information at the beginning of any document you want. Dispaying Readabiity Statistics Sometimes word counts aren t enough: you want to know how readabe your document is, and whether it is suitabe for the audience that is to read it. To dispay readabiity statistics, choose Toos, Options, and cick the Speing & Grammar tab. Check the Show Readabiity Statistics check box, and cick OK. Then, check speing and grammar in your document by pressing F7 or choosing Toos, Speing and Grammar. Aow Word to check your document competey; at the end, it dispays a diaog box simiar to the one in Figure fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01

15 Specia Edition Using Microsoft Word and Exce in Office Ch 3 - Making the Mos..Page 15 of 15 Interpreting Readabiity Statistics The statistics isted in the Readabiity Statistics diaog box are based on an estimate of the number of words in an average sentence, and the average number of syabes in each word. The Fesch Reading Ease score in the Readabiity fied of the diaog box rates text on a scae of 1 to 100; the higher the score, the more understandabe the document. You shoud generay shoot for at east 60 points. The Fesch-Kincaid Grade Leve score rates text based on the average United States grade eve of education needed to understand it. For exampe, a score of 7.0 means an average seventh-grader shoud understand the document. If you write a nontechnica document for a genera audience, and it receives a score much higher than 8 or 9, consider editing to make the document simper. Figure 3.13 A sampe Readabiity Statistics diaog box as it appears after checking speing and grammar in a document. Troubeshooting What to Do If You Can t Edit Your Custom Dictionary Two causes are possibe. First, your custom dictionary might be empty: You can t edit it unti it contains at east one word. Second, if you re running Word across the network, your network administrator may have set CUSTOM.DIC or its foder as Read Ony. Ask permission to create your own oca copy of CUSTOM.DIC and store it where you can _access it. How to Competey Disabe Grammar Checking You may have hidden grammar mistakes rather than disabed grammar checking. Or, you may have disabed Check Grammar as You Type. To competey disabe Grammar Checking, choose Toos, Options, and cick the Speing & Grammar tab. Then, remove the checks from the Check Grammar as You Type and the Check Grammar with Speing check boxes. fie://i:\chapters\i\ir159.htm 3/22/01