MICROSOFT WORD MACROS--A TOOL FOR REVISION
by Catherine Chant
If you have a tendency to overuse certain words that flatten your writing,
recording a macro to highlight these "trouble" words can help with your revisions. In my case, I'm a
sucker for "looked," "saw," "felt," "knew," and a handful of others that
send me into the evil pit of "telling" more than "showing." By using a macro in Microsoft Word,
I can flag all my "trouble" words for closer examination with one click of my mouse.
What is a Macro?
In Microsoft Word terminology, a macro is a series of steps/commands that can be grouped together to run sequentially
with the click of the mouse or the press of a key. It is a timesaving tool. Instead of you selecting menus and
making choices multiple times to accomplish a task, you record a macro with those steps. What took you 5 steps,
now only takes you one.
Windows vs. Macintosh
Fortunately, Microsoft has tried to keep Word almost identical across both computer platforms since the release
of Microsoft Word 6. Menus and commands are usually located in the same place or are at least close. The instructions
in this article were tested with Microsoft Word 97 for Windows and its sister product Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh.
Later versions of Word (2000-2003) should be similar.
Recording a Macro to Highlight Target Words
Overview: The instructions below will show you how to record multiple search and replace commands to find your
target words and highlight them in a different color.
1. Open your manuscript file
2. Create a list on a piece of paper of all the words you feel you use too repetitively, or those that you feel
weaken your writing. For example your list may include: was, felt, saw, as, very, just, "ing" words,
"ly" words. Your list will be unique to your writing style.
Once you have your list of target words, you are ready to record your macro.
3. Select the TOOLS menu, then MACRO--->RECORD NEW MACRO.
4. Enter a name for your new macro (try to keep it short) and click OK. (See illustration A)
(Don't worry about assigning a keyboard command or button to the macro yet, that can be done later).
5. A small toolbar with STOP and PAUSE buttons will appear on the screen with your document. (see illustration
B)
6. Now you will go through the steps that you want the macro to record--namely a global search and replace for
each of the words on your target list.
7. From the EDIT menu select REPLACE.
8. In the FIND AND REPLACE dialogue box, click the "More" button to expand the box to show all the commands
if it is not already expanded. (see illustration C)
9. Enter your target word into the FIND WHAT: box. Check the appropriate box if you want to do a search for "whole
words only" (that means if you are searching for "was," it won't highlight "wasn't" or
"wash."
10. Click into the REPLACE WITH: box, but leave it blank.
11. From the FORMAT menu in the dialogue box, select FONT.
12. In the FONT dialogue box, select the COLOR you want to highlight the word with. Click OK.
13. Back in the FIND AND REPLACE dialogue box, VERIFY that the Find and Replace commands are correct before you
execute the command. (See illustration D).
Below the FIND WHAT: section, you'll see "Whole Words" printed if you selected that option. Below the
REPLACE WITH: section you should see the word "Format:" and the name of the color you chose.
If you see the color listed beneath the FIND WHAT: box, it means you didn't click into the REPLACE WITH: box before
selecting your color. To fix this, click into the FIND WHAT: box and click the "No formatting" button
at the bottom of the dialogue box. Then click into the REPLACE WITH: box and choose your color from the font dialogue
box.
14. Once you have verified that your Find/Replace command is correct, click the REPLACE ALL button. You should
see the words change color in your manuscript.
The macro is recording this action in the background.
15. REPEAT the Find/Replace command for each of the words on your list.
Since you have set up the color change already, each time you return to the Find/Replace window, all you need to
do is type a new word into the FIND WHAT: box and adjust the Whole Words check box if necessary. You won't need
to change anything else.
16. When you have found and replaced all your target words, click the STOP button on the floating macro commands
toolbar. (See illustration A). The stop button has a small square on it.
Congratulations! You've created a macro.
Using a Macro
To use the macro, you can go to the TOOLS menu and select MACRO-->Macros. Highlight the name of your macro and
click the RUN button. OR, a quicker method is to assign either a keyboard command to the macro, or place a button
for the macro in a toolbar.
To assign a keyboard command to the macro:
1. From the TOOLS menu, select CUSTOMIZE. Then click the COMMANDS tab.
2. Click the KEYBOARD button.
3. Scroll down the list of commands on the left until you find MACROS. Click to highlight MACROS. (See illustration
E).
4. Your recorded macros will appear in the box on the right. Click the highlight the macro you want to assign a
keyboard command to.
5. Click into the "Press New Shortcut key:" box.
6. Press the key or keys you want to use to run this macro.
It may take you a couple tries to find a keyboard command that isn't already used by Word, but you can also replace
ones that you know you'd never use.
7. Click ASSIGN, then CLOSE, then CLOSE again to exit the Customize dialogue box.
To assign a macro button to a toolbar
NOTE: The macro buttons are not very attractive. They are simply the name of the macro along with the template
name it's attached to. This is one reason to keep the name of your macro as short as possible.
1. Make sure the toolbar you want to add the macro to is showing on the screen. Use VIEW-->TOOLBARS if it is
not.
2. From the TOOLS menu, select CUSTOMIZE. Then click the COMMANDS tab.
3. Scroll down the list of commands on the left until you find MACROS. Click to highlight MACROS.
4. Your recorded macros will appear in the box on the right. Click to highlight the macro you want to add to a
toolbar.
5. CLICK and DRAG the name of your macro to the toolbar you want to add it to.
This can be a little tricky. Be sure that the insertion point of your mouse is on the inside edge of the button
next to where you want to place the macro button before you release the mouse button.
If you let go of the mouse button and the macro button does not appear, try the click and drag again until you
see the macro button appear on the toolbar. It will look something like a long gray box with the words "Normal.NewMacro.MacroName."
(See illustration F.)
To use the new macro
1. Open one of your Word files.
2. Press the key(s) you assigned to the macro or click the macro button or select the macro name from the TOOLS-->MACRO-->MACROS
menu.
3. After you run the macro, examine the highlighted words.
Additional Tips
. There are no hard and fast rules about which "trouble" words should stay and which should go. Even
the dreaded "was" is not always a bad word. There will be times when "was" is the perfect word
for your sentence. But like any word, if it is overused, it could leave your writing flat.
. Color coding different sets of trouble words may be helpful to you. For example, using red for the passive verbs,
blue for the "ing" words, pink for the "ly" words. Use the method that works best for you.
. Don't overlook the benefits of Microsoft Word's Help menu for assistance with recording or using macros to simplify
tasks.
Catherine Chant worked in higher education for fifteen years as a technical writer, computing & communications
consultant and web content manager. She writes online book and eZine reviews for Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine
(FMAM.biz). Her short story work has appeared in Apollo's Lyre (www.apolloslyre.com). Her current works-in-progress
include a single title romance and a young adult time-travel romance.
The following article first appeared in the March 2004 issue of Words From The Heart, the electronic newsletter
for From The Heart Romance Writers (www.fthrw.com), RWA Online Chapter #177. Permission is granted to sister RWA
chapters to use, with full credits.
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