MICROSOFT
WORD MACROS--A TOOL FOR REVISION
By
Catherine Chant
If you have a tendency to overuse certain words that flatten your writing,
recording a macro to highlight these "trouble" words can help with
your revisions. In my case, I'm a sucker for "looked,"
"saw," "felt," "knew," and a handful of others
that send me into the evil pit of "telling" more than
"showing." By using a macro in Microsoft Word, I can flag all my
"trouble" words for closer examination with one click of my mouse.
What is a Macro?
In Microsoft Word terminology, a macro is a series of steps/commands that
can be grouped together to run sequentially with the click of the mouse or the
press of a key. It is a timesaving tool. Instead of you selecting menus and
making choices multiple times to accomplish a task, you record a macro with
those steps. What took you 5 steps, now only takes you one.
Windows vs. Macintosh
Fortunately, Microsoft has tried to keep Word almost identical across both
computer platforms since the release of Microsoft Word 6. Menus and commands are
usually located in the same place or are at least close.
The instructions in this article were tested with Microsoft Word 97 for
Windows and it's sister product Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh. Later versions
of Word (2000-2003) should be similar.
Recording a Macro to Highlight Target Words
Overview: The instructions below will show you how to record multiple
search and replace commands to find your target words and highlight them in
a different color.
1. Open your manuscript file
2. Create a list on a piece of paper of all the words you feel you use too
repetitively, or those that you feel weaken your writing. For example your list
may include: was, felt, saw, as, very, just, "ing" words, "ly"
words. Your list will be unique to your writing style. Once you have your list
of target words, you are ready to record your macro.
3. Select the TOOLS menu, then MACRO--->RECORD NEW MACRO.
4. Enter a name for your new macro (try to keep it short) and click OK.
(Don't worry about assigning a keyboard command or button to the macro
yet, that can be done later).
5. A small toolbar with STOP and PAUSE buttons will appear on the screen
with your document.
6. Now you will go through the steps that you want the macro to
record--namely a global search and replace for each of the words on your target
list.
7. From the EDIT menu select REPLACE.
8. In the FIND AND REPLACE dialogue box, click the "More" button
to expand the box to show all the commands if it is not already expanded.
9. Enter your target word into the FIND WHAT: box. Check the appropriate box
if you want to do a search for "whole words only" (that means if you
are searching for "was," it won't highlight "wasn't" or
"wash."
10. Click into the REPLACE WITH: box, but leave it blank.
11. From the FORMAT menu in the dialogue box, select FONT.
12. In the FONT dialogue box, select the COLOR you want to highlight
the word with. Click OK.
13. Back in the FIND AND REPLACE dialogue box, VERIFY that the Find and
Replace commands are correct before you execute the command.
Below the FIND WHAT: section, you'll see "Whole Words" printed if
you selected that option. Below the REPLACE WITH: section you should see the
word "Format:" and the name of the color you chose.
If you see the color listed beneath the FIND WHAT: box, it means you didn't
click into the REPLACE WITH: box before selecting your color. To fix this, click
into the FIND WHAT: box and click the "No formatting" button at the
bottom of the dialogue box. Then click into the REPLACE WITH: box and choose
your color from the font dialogue box.
14. Once you have verified that your Find/Replace command is correct, click
the REPLACE ALL button. You should see the words change color in your
manuscript.
The macro is recording this action in the background.
15. REPEAT the Find/Replace command for each of the words on your list.
Since you have set up the color change already, each time you return to the
Find/Replace window, all you need to do is type a new word into the FIND WHAT:
box and adjust the Whole Words check box if necessary. You won't need to change
anything else.
16. When you have found and replaced all your target words, click the STOP
button on the floating macro commands toolbar. The
stop button has a small square on it.
Congratulations! You've created a macro.
Using a Macro
To use the macro, you can go to the TOOLS menu and select
MACRO-->Macros. Highlight the name of your macro and click the RUN
button. OR, a quicker method is to assign either a keyboard command to
the macro, or place a button for the macro in a toolbar.
To assign a keyboard command to the macro:
1. From the TOOLS menu, select CUSTOMIZE. Then click the COMMANDS tab.
2. Click the KEYBOARD button.
3. Scroll down the list of commands on the left until you find MACROS. Click
to highlight MACROS.
4. Your recorded macros will appear in the box on the right. Click the
highlight the macro you want to assign a keyboard command to.
5. Click into the "Press New Shortcut key:" box.
6. Press the key or keys you want to use to run this macro.
It may take you a couple tries to find a keyboard command that isn't already
used by Word, but you can also replace ones that you know you'd never use.
7. Click ASSIGN, then CLOSE, then CLOSE again to exit the Customize dialogue
box.
To assign a macro button to a toolbar
NOTE: The macro buttons are not very attractive. They are simply the name of
the macro along with the template name it's attached to. This is one reason to
keep the name of your macro as short as possible.
1. Make sure the toolbar you want to add the macro to is showing on the
screen. Use VIEW-->TOOLBARS if it is not.
2. From the TOOLS menu, select CUSTOMIZE. Then click the COMMANDS tab.
3. Scroll down the list of commands on the left until you find MACROS. Click
to highlight MACROS.
4. Your recorded macros will appear in the box on the right. Click to
highlight the macro you want to add to a toolbar.
5. CLICK and DRAG the name of your macro to the toolbar you want to add it
to.
This can be a little tricky. Be sure that the insertion point of your mouse
is on the inside edge of the button next to where you want to place the macro
button before you release the mouse button.
If you let go of the mouse button and the macro button does not appear, try
the click and drag again until you see the macro button appear on the toolbar.
It will look something like a long gray box with the words "Normal.NewMacro.MacroName."
To use the new macro
1. Open one of your Word files.
2. Press the key(s) you assigned to the macro or click the macro button
or select the macro name from the TOOLS-->MACRO-->MACROS menu.
3. After you run the macro, examine the highlighted words.
Additional Tips
. There are no hard and fast rules about which "trouble" words
should stay and which should go. Even the dreaded "was" is not always
a bad word. There will be times when "was" is the perfect word for
your sentence. But like any word, if it is overused, it could leave your writing
flat.
. Color coding different sets of trouble words may be helpful to you. For
example, using red for the passive verbs, blue for the "ing" words,
pink for the "ly" words. Use the method that works best for you.
. Don't overlook the benefits of Microsoft Word's Help menu for assistance
with recording or using macros to simplify tasks.
AUTHOR'S BIOGRAPHY
Catherine Chant worked in higher education for fifteen years as a
technical writer, computing & communications consultant
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