As a medical writer or any writer for that matter, you’ll come across a situation where you need to edit documents in Word. Microsoft Word is a very useful and popular program used for creating documents of all kinds. It’s also a complex tool with lots of features, which can make using it feel overwhelming at first. Word has some great tools built in to help users manage documents more easily. But there are also many ways to edit Word documents that aren’t as obvious as you might think.
Did you know you can use the track changes feature to mark edits on another person’s document? Or that you can use AutoCorrect to correct common spelling errors as you write instead of proofing the document again later? There are lots of little tricks like these that make working with Word much easier than it might seem at first glance.
In This Article – Edit documents in Word
- Use comments
- Track changes
- AutoCorrect and vocabulary
- Use the Read Aloud feature of MS Word
- Use styles
- Organize documents with sections and chapters
- Conclusion
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Use comments
Comments are a great way to leave yourself notes. Or comments in a document without actually editing the text itself. You can leave comments for other users of the document (including yourself if you need to look back on your edits later), for yourself, or for other editors. If you’re editing a document and want to leave yourself a note about an edit you’re unsure about, all you need to do is click Insert. > Comment, type your comment, and click OK.
You can then select the text you want to comment on, click Insert > Comment again, and choose the comment you want to attach to that selection. Your comments will show up as yellow highlights in the document.
Edit Word documents in tracked changes
There are lots of different ways to track changes when editing documents in Word. You can use the Track Changes feature, insert comments, or use a visual marking system like the color-coding or redline feature. Whichever way you choose, you can use the same method for marking all of your changes. For instance, if you’re editing a document and want to comment on an edit. but also want to mark the change in some way, you can select the text and click Insert > Comment. Instead of typing your comment, click Mark as change, and click OK.
The selected text will then be marked as a change in the document. You can then select that text and type your comment. You can also use the same method to mark a comment as a change. Just select the text in the comment and click Mark as change.
Auto-correct and vocabulary
If you’ve been editing documents in Word for a while, you might have noticed that AutoCorrect can occasionally get a bit finicky. If you’ve ever written a document and accidentally used the wrong word but AutoCorrect changed it to the right one anyway, you might have wondered if there’s a way to change the way the program corrects your mistakes. There is, but it’s not something you can do on a case-by-case basis. Instead, you’ll need to change the program’s default behavior for making corrections.
To do that, click File > Options > Proofing, and click the AutoCorrect Options button. Here, you can choose whether AutoCorrect automatically fixes common spelling errors or not and what words it uses for correcting common errors.
Use the Read Aloud feature of MS Word
The Read Aloud feature of Word can be a great way to proofread your documents if you’re an auditory rather than a visual reader. Select the text you want to read aloud, click Insert > Read Aloud, and choose the speed at which you want the program to read the text. The program will read your text aloud, so you can listen for errors as you proofread.
Use styles
Styles are a very useful feature of Word. They make it much easier to create professional-looking documents. by allowing you to apply formatting to text with a single click. They can also make it easier to edit documents by allowing you to change the formatting of multiple. pieces of text at once. For instance, if you’re editing a document and want to bold a piece of text. You can select the text. Click the Bold button in the toolbar.
However, if you’ve used styles to format that text, you can click the Bold button and immediately select all instances of the bold style.
Organize docs with sections and chapters
You can break up long documents into smaller, more manageable pieces by adding sections and chapters. This can help you to organize your document, mark important points, and keep track of your progress as you write. Sections can be used to break documents up into logical parts. While chapters can be used to break down. Very long documents into smaller chunks. To add a section or chapter, click the Insert tab, click the drop-down menu beside Section, and select Section.
Similarly, you can click the drop-down menu beside Chapter and select Chapter to add a new chapter.
How to edit documents in Word – Conclusion
Microsoft Word has so many different tools and features built-in that it can be easy to forget about all of the different ways you can edit your documents. To make your time editing documents more efficient and enjoyable. it’s worth taking the time to learn how best to use these features. You’ll save time by making fewer mistakes, you’ll be able to concentrate better by removing visual distractions. You’ll feel more confident about your work. Isn’t it cool how much you can do with just a single program?
