Tech tools for editors

The how and the why

Join the newsletter

Subscribe to get our latest blog content by email.

    We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

    Customise the quick access toolbar

    author
    Hilary Cadman
    25 April, 2020
    Are you tired of having to click several times to use a feature in MS Word? Or perhaps you can’t find things when you need them. The key to speeding up your editing is to customise the quick access toolbar (QAT). Few people know about this useful feature, but I find it a real time-saver when I'm...

    READ MORE

    ​Three easy ways to make Word shortcuts work for you

    author
    Hilary Cadman
    19 April, 2020
    When you’re editing in Word, shortcuts are a fabulous way to speed up your work and avoid an overuse injury. It’s easy to find Word shortcuts – here are some helpful lists from Microsoft and fellow editor Louise Harnby. But shortcuts are only useful if you can easily remember them. Here are three...

    READ MORE

    Three reasons why editors need PerfectIt

    02 April, 2020
    Among the many tools available for editors, PerfectIt is one of the best. Despite using PerfectIt for more than 10 years, I still find myself thinking 'that's fantastic' when I run it on a long document. Here are three reasons why I love PerfectIt. 1 – PerfectIt saves you time PerfectIt, an...

    READ MORE

    Textexpander vs autocorrect

    author
    Hilary Cadman
    08 December, 2019
    One tool that I absolutely could not do without is a text expander – a program that saves time by completing frequently used phrases or snippets of text. In the past, I used the Autocorrect function in MS Word to do this. For example, I had set up Word so that when I typed ‘hivx’, the words...

    READ MORE

    Do Word add-ins save time?

    author
    Hilary Cadman
    08 December, 2019
    When they were first brought out, ‘labour-saving devices’ such as washing machines, dryers, vacuum cleaners and dishwashers were sold as great time-savers. Sadly, the promised additional leisure time has simply been absorbed into yet more work. It seems to be the same with editing. We now have a...

    READ MORE

    A clearer view in MS Word

    author
    Hilary Cadman
    08 December, 2019
    See more clearly in Print Layout view Editors often work with a document in Print Layout view. It gives you useful information such as what’s in the header and whether the page numbering is correct. But when working on main text, it can be helpful to get the headers and footers out of the...

    READ MORE

    Fields in MS Word

    author
    Hilary Cadman
    25 June, 2019
    Have you made changes to a Word document – perhaps to page numbers or to references – and then found that your changes mysteriously disappear? This can happen if you make changes to fields, which are code rather than text. Watch the video to understand what fields are, and how you can easily add,...

    READ MORE


    ABOUT

    This blog highlights some of the many tools that editors can use to work more effectively and efficiently. It combines practical tips with my thoughts (or perhaps rants!) on why editors need to invest the time and money in buying tools and learning to use them.

    And if you'd like to get tips and tools straight to your inbox, simply subscribe to tips and news from Cadman Training.