Working in the word processor

Medical writers use word processors, particularly Microsoft Word, to build, format and check long documents. The parts divide by task: learning the program, identifying useful features, controlling formatting, using shortcuts, checking with find and replace, and recognising automatic-checking failures. Template products, document-automation tools, editing passes and layout design belong to neighbouring concerns.

• Learning a word processor and where to look things up — workplace learning, manuals, onscreen-editing books and version-specific help sites
• Which word-processor features medical writers rely on — regular use and essential skills in a 2018 survey of 88 writers, including differences by writing specialty
• Controlling formatting in a word processor — formatting marks, styles and templates, pasting, breaks and numbering, figures, contents lists and files shared across versions
• Keyboard shortcuts in a word processor — shortcut types, special characters, navigation and selection in Word as of 2008
• Using find and replace to check a document — special codes, format searches and wildcards for document checks and table conversion in Word as of 2014
• Where a spelling checker and an automatic filter go wrong — real-word errors, technical-term suggestions, exclusion dictionaries and unintended censorship by filters