Cut your editing time in half!

Introducing....the 'Replace' function. Let me share a little-known but massively useful tip for editing of your documents.

Consider this scenario:

You've written your document draft and spent time proofreading (better still, you've sent it to a professional proofreader such as me at 'Word Write for Success' - http://www.wordwriteforsuccess.com.au/). The feedback is that there are several instances of the same error throughout your document.

You could spend a painstaking amount of time trawling through your document for all of the instances of the error, or, you could save yourself massive amounts of time, simply by use of the 'Replace' function in Microsoft Word.

For example, in a document I recently read, reference was made repeatedly to 'Australian rules' rather than 'Australian Rules' (capital 'R' for 'Rules). The document was over 2000 words in length and the client, a student, was concerned about how long it was going to take him to locate all of the instances of this particular punctuation error.

How the 'Replace' function works:

Using the example of 'rules' needing to be replaced by 'Rules', follow these steps:

1. Go to the 'Editing' tab on your toolbar (found on far right in Microsoft 2007 version).
2. Click on 'Replace'.
3. In the box beside 'Find what', type in word exactly as it appears as an error in your document, in the case of the example, 'rules'.
4. Tab to the box below labelled 'Replace with' and type in the correction you wish to make, in this case, 'Rules'.
5. You have the option to replace it just once, by clicking on 'Replace', however, if it is an error which requires correction throughout the document, click on 'Replace All'.
6. A dialog box will then appear telling you how many times it has made the replacement throughout your document. This is when you sit back and imagine how long it would have taken you to find each instance of the error manually (and thank me for helping you save all that precious time!).

Happy replacing!

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