As more writers all over the world move their work to self-publishing platforms like Lulu and KDP Select, writers increasingly need to become their own editors. This can sound absolutely terrifying if you’ve never put on your editing hat before, but it’s not nearly as difficult as you might think to go from writer to editor.
Your word processor has tons of tricks and shortcuts built right in, all designed to make editing easier. Many writers and editors don’t use these tools simply because they don’t know they exist. I’ve seen people spend hours on tasks that could take minutes with the right shortcuts.
Are you using your word processor to its full capacity?
If you need a little extra help, here are some handy keyboard shortcuts and word processor tricks that can make the editing process both faster and easier.
Choose the Right Word Processor
Start with the right word processor if you want editing to be as smooth as possible. The most updated version will ensure you don’t run into compatibility issues or lost formatting settings.
While MS Word used to be the go-to option, it’s not as widely used today because there are better, free alternatives out there. LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice are two of the most powerful word processors you can get for free. If those don’t work for you, try Google Docs, which automatically saves to the cloud as you work.
Find and Replace
Find and replace is one of the biggest time-savers you have. Use it when you need to make several replacements of a specific grammar mistake or word. Think 200 instances of the character name Dave when it should have been Joe. Doing this one-by-one would take you hours instead of seconds.
The find setting also helps you locate anything quickly in your manuscript. For faster access, use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+F.
Using Comments
Comments within a word processor can be incredibly useful for keeping track of your thoughts. Insert a comment by pressing CTRL+ALT+C. In comment mode, you can cycle through all the comments you’ve made in a document. It’s a quick way for an editor to make notes that only they can see (yes, you can press Hide Comments under the settings).
Tracking Changes with Track Changes
If you want to leave more than just comments in your document, use track changes. This will keep track of all your changes in red. Later you can either accept or reject these changes. As an editor, this is incredibly useful for remembering exactly what you’ve done.
If you aren’t sure what you’ve changed, turn track changes on and it will show you. It’s like taking a red pen to a manuscript, except much easier with technology on your side.
Erasing Words
You spend way too much time pressing the erase and delete keys while you’re editing a book. There’s no need to erase one letter at a time, especially when you’re trying to save time during the editing process.
Use CTRL together with the backspace key to erase entire words instead of just individual letters. When you’re backspacing big pieces of text, this saves you tons of time, effort and keystrokes.