Tuesday, February 02, 2010

I was looking...at Gary Corby's blog

I was thinking this info about search/replace will be pretty valuable if you, like Gary, have a fondness for present participles.
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15 comments:

  1. Josin L. McQuein2/2/10, 1:20 PM

    Now there needs to be a post on the dangers of Find/Replace.

    Like what happens when you want to change a character name and so you "replace all" only to realize that now you have words with the new name IN THE MIDDLE of the word because you forgot to check the "match case" and "whole word only" boxes.

    No one wants to visit "FredeThomas, MA" because you changed "Rick" to "Thomas". Nor do they believe that the MC lives in a "red bThomas house". And getting into a tThomasy situation just doesn't have the same punch.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Susan Kaye Quinn2/2/10, 1:24 PM

    Awesome. Now if I could just find something that prevent me from an excessive use of the word "that." Perhaps physical restraints.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dan Krokos2/2/10, 5:08 PM

    So that's going to come in handy. Mind if I have my manuscripts back for a bit? Hah. *rubs temples and sighs*

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deb Salisbury, Magic Seeker and Mantua-Maker2/2/10, 5:57 PM

    Too cool! I didn't know any of those tricks, and I thought I knew Word pretty well.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sharen Ford2/2/10, 6:58 PM

    Wow! That was ****ing great!

    Thanks, Gary (and Janet).

    ReplyDelete
  6. mallard2/2/10, 7:17 PM

    Microsoft may be ruining my ability to spell correctly, but at least it can help me with my grammer.

    Should I insert an insecure smiley face?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lorelei Armstrong2/2/10, 8:57 PM

    Finished the rough draft of the new novel today, and promptly used Find to remove 120 "just"s, and replaced still more with better choices. Tomorrow I shall go after "seem" and "near," two other favorites. And, since the copyeditor of my last novel pointed it out, I shall see if once again, when needing to supply a number, I used "ten" 100% of the time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown2/2/10, 10:43 PM

    Josin, that's so true. I recently decided to change a character's name from Matt to Mike, thinking I would be pretty safe, only to go back and find sentences like, "It didn't really Mikeer to him..." :P

    ReplyDelete
  9. Joelle2/2/10, 11:19 PM

    How did you know I was about to start my last round of edits on my WIP before sending it to my editor and I needed this?

    I don't even have to remove "that" anymore because it's like you're sitting on my shoulder shaking your head as my fingers reach for the t..h..delete, delete!

    ReplyDelete
  10. McKoala2/3/10, 4:33 AM

    Hm, I knew about *, but not the rest. Great advice.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Liz2/3/10, 9:31 AM

    I love butchering all adverbs this way. . . boldly and decisively of course.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Joylene Nowell Butler2/3/10, 10:17 AM

    Sadly Gary's trick didn't work for me and my Word:Mac. I'll have to stick with find WAS.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dale Bishop2/3/10, 11:24 AM

    Good info.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Elisabeth Black2/3/10, 3:45 PM

    I am loving this post. It is making me laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Heather Kelly2/4/10, 11:59 AM

    WHEN I clicked over to Gary's post, my head started to swim a bit. There's a lot of great editing advice there. I'm going to have to sort through it, and figure it out. Thanks for the link!

    ReplyDelete

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