Learning a word processor and where to look things up
Medical writers learn Microsoft Word through their work and their employers' training, and they can look things up in manuals, books on onscreen editing and help websites, many of them written for particular versions of the program.
Learning Word on the job
As of March 2014, software and operating systems keep advancing rapidly, but medical writers often do not have time to keep up with the changes and learn all the ins and outs of new software or its most recent versions. Some writers may use alternative software, but as of March 2014 Microsoft Office is the standard in the medical writing business, and learning its many quirks and secret functions can help simplify tasks and avoid problems.
The head of a medical-writing company of 16 people names Word as the most important Microsoft Office skill for medical writing, and PowerPoint as well for writers who prepare slide presentations. In this employer's account, medical writers work on very large documents, so they develop skills in Word that they probably did not have before, such as building tables of contents, and they receive training in those skills. The employer does not expect new medical writers to have much experience of Word or PowerPoint, expects to have to train them, and counts training staff as important.
When electronic word processing was first introduced in the mid-1980s, most people working for companies had courses that gave them a comprehensive grounding in the basics and a few special uses, followed by a half-day course or a couple of hours each time a new version of the software was issued. By March 2014, people were simply expected to be able to use a word processor, rather as they are expected to be able to drive. As of March 2014, many large companies send only a few administrative assistants for training on Word and expect them to pass the knowledge on to their colleagues, so the really useful things Word can do do not filter through to those who need them most, the authors and editors. It is worth spending a little time getting to know how to exploit functions such as find and replace, and how to change or understand the factory settings that can sometimes be annoying.
As of March 2014, many people use a word processor like a glorified typewriter. One reviewer of a book on onscreen editing holds, as of Summer 2023, that for a large majority of people their writing and editing software is basically a typewriter, in which most shortcuts, symbols and functions such as automatic find and replace do not exist.
A Word manual for medical and technical writers
Microsoft Word for Medical and Technical Writers, by Peter G. Aitken and Maxine M. Okazaki, addresses the tasks of developing long and complex technical documents. Its first edition was for users of Word 2003, and its second edition, Microsoft Word 2010 for Medical and Technical Writers, published in 2013, incorporates the changes made to Word 2010. Most of those changes are revised instructions for calling up tools such as dialog boxes, and in its reviewer's view in Fall 2013, beyond the ribbon Word had not changed much in the way most medical writers are likely to use it. In the same reviewer's experience, once writers had learned to reach their favourite tools through the ribbon, they performed the basic tasks of editing, formatting text and tables, laying out pages, handling reviews and revisions, and building and managing templates mostly the same way in Word 2010 as in Word 2003.
The manual takes a problem-solving and problem-avoiding approach to Word, and its chapters cover:
- Word's options, discussed in detail, with recommendations on how to set them optimally for building, editing and managing complex documents.
- Styles, mostly paragraph styles: working definitions of Word's five style types, how to create and modify styles, and why and how to stay away from the troublesome "normal" paragraph style.
- Page breaks, section breaks and page headers and footers.
- Fields of various kinds.
- Cross-references and numbering.
- Tables.
- Templates.
- An assortment of topics, such as symbols and special characters and inserting content from other applications.
- Some dos and don'ts, a short essay on backing up files and a list of keyboard shortcuts.
A book on onscreen editing
The third edition of Geoff Hart's Effective Onscreen Editing: New tools for an old profession, published in 2016, covers editing from inserting, moving and deleting text in Word documents and using tracked changes to working with other kinds of document such as databases and spreadsheets, using style sheets, and proofreading PDFs and online material, with detailed guidance for both PC and Mac users, in 18 chapters, four appendices and a lengthy glossary. Hart, a long-time scientific editor, states his aim as teaching "how to use the computer for things that computers do better than humans", and he tries to persuade those still editing paper copies that editing electronic versions is the way forward. Throughout the book he troubleshoots anticipated problems and advises on working more efficiently by creating or exploiting shortcuts in Word, and two of the appendices hold further troubleshooting and a collection of shortcuts. The book also covers backing up and protecting work and Word customisations, avoiding injury while working at the computer and deciding how much to charge for editorial services, and editing text received in HTML, XHTML or other markup languages, guidance its reviewer judged of more specialist interest.
The third edition does not look beyond Word 2010 for the PC and Word 2011 for the Mac, which Word 2013 and Word 2016 had already superseded when it was reviewed in March 2017, and its reviewer expected further versions, each with added, modified or lost functionality. Hart did not regard the edition as finished, invited input from readers and promised updates to the web versions of the chapters. In the reviewer's judgement in March 2017, the final two chapters, on overcoming resistance to onscreen editing and on implementing it, would become increasingly redundant as onscreen editing headed for ubiquity.
The same reviewer found much in the third edition for the averagely skilled Word user to learn. The reviewer's personal highlights were the chapters and sections on find and replace, comments, navigating documents and using macros, and the advice on turning AutoFormat and AutoCorrect from annoyances into assets. The reviewer found few deficiencies: cross-references to other sections are not clickable, and some overly basic information is included, seemingly at the request of readers of earlier versions, though headings and bold text make it easy to skip to what is needed. For the reviewer, the 827-page PDF proved more enriching than a printed copy, because the tips could be tested on screen directly after reading them, and its table of contents and index were clickable. The reviewer held that anyone who does any kind of editing work or wishes to use Word more efficiently should strongly consider buying it.
The fourth edition covers Word 2016, and as of Summer 2023 anyone who orders it also receives free Hart's more recent book Write Faster with Your Word Processor, which has updated information on the changes in Word 2019. Hart cares about keeping the book updated as word-processing functions change, and its website holds images and further information, can be updated regularly and gives owners of the book access to the new explanations. As of Summer 2023, earlier editions are available to users of earlier versions of Word. The text is organised around editing functions within a word processor and not around Word, so the fourth edition's reviewer expects it to be useful with other programs too, perhaps with a search engine's help to find how a function is set up there, though Word, as of Summer 2023 still the most often used program for editing, gets the most attention. The same reviewer holds that its practices are extremely effective whatever the program, because they introduce the general principles and how to use them. The book points out where the procedures differ for Mac users. The book also covers document access, contracts, pay rates, working in teams, equipment that promotes healthy ergonomics, and editing graphics, video and multimedia files, and it has an appendix of shortcuts.
This reviewer also holds that the book makes readers aware of the editing tools their software offers and teaches them to use those tools to make their work more accurate and efficient, and that even readers who know something of the software are bound to learn some very good tips. This reviewer found most valuable the parts on tailoring the program's display of documents, moving quickly through a document, selecting text quickly and accurately, tracked changes, styles and templates, using AutoCorrect to fill in text, find and replace, macros and style sheets, together with the advice on adding explanatory comments for the author. The reviewer adds that learning to use these tools properly can take a long time, but it can lead to greater accuracy and efficiency in the long term, which are critical in medical writing and editing. As of Summer 2023, the book is sold in print, EPUB and PDF formats, and the reviewer recommends a digital version, so that the links in the text and the clickable index and table of contents can be used. A compressed version of the book's web pages can be downloaded for working offline, and the book is reasonably priced, with substantial discounts for groups, students and members of professional organisations. Reading the book and applying its precepts takes a lot of time and effort, but it is easy to open the book on a particular issue and save time with a solution, and the reviewer, expecting considerable savings in time and gains in accuracy, highly recommends it.
Help and tips online
As of 2008, Microsoft Office Online, reached from Word's Help menu, holds help and how-to material for each version of Word. As of 2008, The Editorium, a website that provides help for Word, offers a newsletter, its previous issues and free software to download. As of 2009, The Editorium's site holds some free macros, a free newsletter and some useful macros for purchase, and its free section has, among others, downloadable macros with instructions on advanced find and replace, a NameSwapper macro that simplifies the formatting of names, and a customisable page layout template.
As of 2009, Allen Wyatt's Word Tips site holds thousands of free Word shortcuts and tips. The tips are organised by function, such as bullets and numbering, editing, formatting, printing and tables, and the whole site can be searched. They support versions from Word 6 to Word 2007, and a note at the end of each tip says which versions it applies to and where the versions differ. A free weekly newsletter carries a few tips, and users can post problems to the site or submit them for the newsletter's Help Wanted section. In Winter 2014, the WordTips (Ribbon Interface) newsletter and Google were also recommended as resources for Word users.