Using macros to clean up manuscripts

How often have you received a manuscript that is full of double spaces, double paragraph returns, multiple tabs, etc? Rather than correct all of these manually, you are much better off using the Find and Replace tool to change these globally. To make things even easier, you could record a macro which runs a series of standard Find and Replace actions so that you can clean up most manuscripts in seconds with just one click of a button.

Try this:

1. Open the ms in Word.
2. Under the Tools menu, choose Macro > Record New Macro...
3. In the dialogue box that comes up, type in an appropriate name (no spaces please).
4. If you wish, you can also make the macro into a toolbar button or assign a keyboard shortcut to it by clicking on the relevant button under Assign macro to. If you choose Toolbar, another dialogue box will come up and you can drag the name on the right up to a spot on the toolbar (you can rename it later). If you choose Keyboard, you will be asked to press a key combination to which the macro will be assigned (you will be warned if you choose something that is already in use).



5. Click OK. A small box containing a stop button and a pause button appears floating above the document. Now anything you do to your document will be recorded into the macro.



6. Try doing a Find and Replace to replace two spaces with one, two paragraph returns (^p^p) with one (^p), two tabs (^t^t) with one (^t), etc. I suggest you do each of these at least three or four times to ensure that multiple spaces, returns, etc are found. You can even replace all Normal styled text with Body text or whatever other style you wish to use.
7. When you have finished all your global replacements, click on the stop button in the floating box.
8. Congratulations! You have just created a macro. Next time you need to make similar changes, just click on the toolbar or use the keyboard combination to run the macro again.

Note: Please be careful with choosing your global replacements. It is possible to entirely ruin an ms with hasty replacements. For this reason, it is always a good idea to work on a copy of the original file or a sample non-critical file when you are creating your macro. This will allow you the opportunity to fine-tune your macro without causing any damage!