Subversive Tech Tip #8: Coloring Your Copy

If you write or copyedit in Microsoft Word, have you thought about using color as a tool? Here are two ways I use color in editing and word-processing.

(1) You know how sometimes you need to work with different versions of the same document open at the same time, and the first time you go to save your work, you find out you’ve been editing the wrong version, and you want to kill yourself? To prevent this, in addition to saving compulsively, I color the text of the old version to make it obvious that it’s not the working copy. Hit Ctrl+A to highlight the whole thing, then open the Format Font dialog box (Alt+O+F). In the Font tab, find Font Color and open the drop-down menu. Pick your favorite color (I love that soothing olive called dark yellow), hit Enter, and Bob’s your uncle. (I’m older than you are, so I get to say things like that.)

(2) If you have to provide typesetting codes or check someone else’s, and if they’re the kind that are in angle brackets, you can color them in a wildcard search so they’ll “pop” when you’re viewing the document on screen. Hit Ctrl+H, and expand the box with Alt+M (for “more”). Alt+U will turn on the wildcard feature. In the Find box, type \<*\>, and in the Replace box make sure there’s nothing there, not even a space.* Choose a color for the Replace box following the steps in project #1. (I like red for codes.) Let ’er rip. (Replace All.) Everything between angle brackets should now be your favorite color.

When you’re finished playing with colors, you can remove them all by repeating the steps in (1) and choosing Automatic as the color.

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*If there’s a space or any character in the Replace box, there will be unpleasantness when you hit Replace All. But don’t worry—that’s why God gave us Ctrl+Z.

Photo: Wax Crayons, by Charles Rondeau, licensed under CC0 Public Domain

Comments

[Karen]

I use color all the time! I color acronyms that I have gone through and checked. (I do a separate pass for this during a pre-edit.) If it's red, it's been properly defined. If it's blue, it doesn't need to be expanded (as for cell lines and genes).

This really helps me see if an author has mistakenly transposed some letters: I might read right past an EAFG that is really an EFAG, for example. If it's not in color, I know to check it.

Color is not marked as an edit if you do a Replace while in Word's Track Changes, which is super helpful.

[Scotti Cohn]

Brilliant! And I love colorful things (and shiny things).

[Joyce F. Bathalter]

A great idea! I find getting started is a bit time consuming. Researching the process to make some short cuts.