From YA Highway:
Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question to write about on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.This week’s topic: What word processing program do you use to write you manuscript, and can you share one handy trick you’ve learned in that program that has helped you while you write?
I remember when my mom got our first electric typewriter. I also remember, vaguely, the days before we had any word processing programs to chose from. But I do love word processing programs. Without them, I wouldn’t have the ♥delete♥ key, which is the best invention EVER!
I’m just saying, we’ve come a long way.
This is called a “typewriter.”
But this post is all about those computer gadgets with word processing programs. So, without further delay, I declare my preference for writing my manuscripts on MS Word. There are so many things that Word can do (some of them really poorly). But one thing it does really well is plain old word processing. I find that Word does a great job of keeping track of what I write. And that’s what a good word processing program should do.
Good enough.
There are two features I like that I want to share:
Styles: I was introduced to the idea of styles while learning how to use InDesign (which I love). But it turns out they have styles in Word as well. I could go on and on about them, but basically styles save time in formatting. No need to use the tab key, no need to worry about line spacing or font. If you use styles you can change all the formatting for your whole WIP in one magical place.
Compare Drafts: Yes, that’s right! You can compare drafts in word. I guess there are other people out there who already knew this, but I remember doing my own little happy dance when I figured it out. It is SO helpful when you are trying to do revisions based on inline notes from more than one person, or when you are trying to thread together your story from two different rounds of revisions. In the Mac Word menu this is under “tools” and “track changes.” I highly recommend checking it out.
What about you, what’s your preferred word processing program? What’s your favorite trick it can do?
I use the table of contents feature a lot. I set up Chapter headers, format them with a Chapter Header Style, then generate the table of contents. It lets me get a sense of how long each chapter is, which gives me a good sense of pacing, plot development, and which chapters are too long/short. You can even ad sub-chapters to get a fine-grained look at how the story flows.
I use the table of contents too. I didn’t realize you could set up sub chapters though. Hmmm. Learning more now. Thanks!
So many people responding to today’s question love Word! I didn’t know about the compare drafts feature. That’s pretty cool.
When I was in my teens, PCs patrolled the streets with truncheons, keeping law and order, and didn’t do word processing (note: I grew up in the UK where a PC was a Police Constable). In those days, I had a trusty typewriter that was a birthday present from my parents. It was great seeing my words in “print”–but if I made a mistake, correcting was a nightmare. Correction fluids like Liquid Paper helped somewhat. Or there was the white card type thing you could put in front of your piece of paper. You would then re-type what you mistakenly typed, and it would print a white powdery substance on top of the words, effectively eliminating the error. It did the job, but it was not elegant, and very time-consuming.
A delete key would have been wonderful. So, even if it seems a simple thing, those of us who know what it means to live without a delete key should be grateful nonetheless.
And I really am grateful. I forgot about those white card things. I used those once upon a time. All hail the delete key!
Ooooh i’ll have to try the compare drafts feature. This RTW is teaching me heaps!
I know. I was really excited about this RTW. But then, I’m kind of a dork.
I’ll have to learn how to use styles now. I waste way too much time formatting manuscripts. I do use the compare drafts function, but sometimes I find it overwhelming when I try to compare drafts with multiple commenters. Nice to meet you!
I use, and usually love, Word, but I bought an inexpensive layout program to create the book I’m publishing in October, mostly because I didn’t have enough control over tracking and folios. Word does certain things a lot better than the layout program, but I wanted (needed!) text boxes and that kind of control, since I’m a Quark girl at heart.
My favorite thing about Word, with the freelance editing I do, is track changes.