MS Word 2013 Tips and Tricks - Grammar Check Solutions

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Today, I'm talking about a tool you already know and love but may not be using to its full potential. Please note! I haven't tried this on earlier versions of Word, but in the 365 suite, all these functions are available for you to exploit use. Are you ready to get your awesome on? You may need pen and paper, but you might wanna open your MS Word and be ready to follow these steps. Either way, grab some java and let's get rolling!

First, open Word by clicking on the icon and choose blank document.

Next, you'll wanna go to the menu item File. Click there and you'll get a screen that looks like this:

No, I'm not gonna show you my file list. *grin* You'll know what I've been up to soon enough. Let's move on! Please click on Options down at the bottom left (see arrow).

You'll get a screen like this:

Now, we want to click on Proofing (see arrow).

And we get this:

Under the heading When Correcting Spelling and Grammar in Word, there's a Settings... box to the right of Writing Style. Be sure Grammar and Style are selected from the drop down there, then move to the box. Click it (see arrow)!

Here's where the magic happens! Look at all the nifty check boxes! If you missed changing the drop down in the step before this one, you may do that now. You won't see all these boxes in one view; you'll have to scroll. I'm showing you here so you may have a nice overview. *grin* Are you all in grammar geek Heaven like I am?

Make your selections and click OK.

Now, open your manuscript and review everything Word magically underlines for you. Booyah!

Please keep in mind that Word doesn't "read" your manuscript. There are still stylistic choices you'll have to make, but most have an option to keep the program from pointing those out.

THIS DOES NOT NEGATE THE NEED FOR AN EDITOR. Yes, you can get a cleaner manuscript this way. No, it won't catch all your errors. Yes, it will create new errors if you blindly accept all suggestions. It's a program, not a human.

I hope this little tutorial helps you all in some way.

Did you know these options existed? Did you check it out? What did you find! Share with us!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Collaborating on Google Drive

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! I promised you this post last week and ended up not doing anything at all. Eeeeew. What can I say? I have my off days, too! *grin* But, as promised, it's a Tuesday and you're getting all the deets. Now, I'm not going into all the things Google Drive can do, because that's a vast amount of information, but I'll explain how it can be used to co-edit a document and a cool feature that's available once you're on the inside. Ready? Cool. Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Once you click on the drive icon from Gmail, you'll see something like this:

You'll want to click the New button (in red) on the top, left-hand side for this exercise. Here:

Now, you'll have a choice to make. Please choose Google Docs like this:

Drive will magically take you here:

Click on the words Untitled Document in the top left:

Type in the name of your new doc in the popup box:

I'm not going into all the menu options today, that's a whole other blog post. But, as you can see, you have a ton of ways to format your document (and it auto-saves your progress):

Now, you need to look on the top right and find the share button:

Once you click it, you get a popup like this:

Start typing a name. If you have them in your Google address book, you'll get a dropdown:

Choose one. Click on the dropdown on the right that says Can edit:

 

These are the options you get:

Be sure Can edit is chosen (it's the default, but...). Now, you've chosen your collaborator, so let's go look at advanced options. Click the button:

You'll see a screen like this:

Pretty self-explanatory, no? Make your choices and send it on. I'm inviting the awesome Casey L. Bond to join us for this tutorial.

Here's where the magic happens! Once your collaborators access the document, they'll have a little icon (based on their Google Drive photo) in the top right, next to your name (Casey's is the cover of her novel, Reap, mine would be my logo):

As they type, their name shows next to the text (this works for each person typing):

They can change options just like you can:

Now, see the little icon next to Casey's?

Click it and select launch chat. This pops up:

It gives you a way to discuss what's being typed in the document as others are editing it without making changes. How cool is that?

Add to the coolness, this document is automatically saved in the main menu of your Drive. You can pop it into a folder, or leave it with all the other stuff you have stored there. The sky's the limit!

I hope this little walkthrough taught you something you didn't know. The power of Google Drive is awesome, and I hope to hear about you guys using it in the future!

Did you learn something? Ever used that feature before? Tell me about it!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

A Guest Post by Felicia Tatum

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm treating you all to a wonderful guest post by my featured author, Felicia Tatum! You're gonna love this one. In case this is your first visit to my blog, I'll remind you that Felicia is one of the authors attending UtopYA Con 2014 and these posts are a way to get to know some of the ladies before the event. Tickets are on sale now! Click here to get yours. Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

The Whiteboard, Computer, Pink Highlighter, and Notebook Way

by Felicia Tatum

What do a whiteboard, a computer, a pink highlighter, and a Hunger Games themed notebook all have in common?

They keep me sane.

Writing a book is a lot of work…but what happens when your brain decides to throw a bunch of different stories at you?

What do you do when you have all of these characters vying for your attention, begging you to let their story out, but you don’t know how to handle it all?

The above list has saved my life, helped me become more organized, and improved how quickly and efficiently I write

The Whiteboard: I have the next 4 projects on the board…word count goals, current word count, deadline date, and tentative release date. Maybe it’s just me, but seeing this thing looming over my head every morning makes me go, “Oh, I need to get a better number,” “That needs to be higher,” or “I need to finish that one.”

A computer: Duh. If you don’t know what this is for, please email me NOW.

A pink highlighter: I use it to mark off scenes as I write them…where are the scenes, you ask? Read on…

A Hunger Games themed notebook: I have all things book in this notebook my brother bought me a year ago for $2. I have started outlining books, so I have chapter ideas, and sometimes whole chapters outlined in it. I also have detailed pages of dreams I have for later books. This helps me to keep it all together. And yes, I have another for when this one is full.

So, I’m curious.
How do you keep organized? What do you do?

I’ve noticed I write much faster and have met deadlines much easier since I started all of this.

~ Felicia

Whether you have a moment or not, you gotta check out Felicia's featured book for this week and enter her Rafflecopter giveaway to win a copy!

Title: Devlin's Decendant
Author: Felicia Tatum
Genre: YA Paranormal
Length:  234 Printed Pages
Amazon Links: Kindle $2.99 Paperback $8.55
B&N Link: NOOK $2.99

Description:
The curse is drawing closer and closer to an end, the only solution, kill Devlin Hart’s descendant. Scott is dealing with the aftermath of his discovery while Olivia desperately tries to stop Aiden’s recapture. What will happen when Scott reveals the identity of the descendant?

Follow along as Olivia, Scott, Juniper, Sadie, Aiden, and Mark continue their adventure. Discover secrets, new loves, celebrate a birthday, take a trip to the mysterious Sorcery Council, and more in Devlin’s Descendant.


Give Felicia a follow!
On the Web
On Goodreads


And, the Rafflecopter Giveaway:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo