Comments on: The Tools of Your Trade https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/ Literary Agent Tue, 13 May 2025 22:21:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Anonymous https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37170 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 04:12:09 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37170 >I’m familiar with track changes but need to go play with it more to get some of the features you mentioned.What annoys me is to receive an MS Word document that uses tabs when one can so easily set indents without them.

]]> By: Hannah Hounshell https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37152 Sat, 06 Nov 2010 03:43:00 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37152 >Well that’s a relief. I think I’ll go look into getting the update, though. It sounds like it would really come in handy.Thanks a bunch! 😀

]]> By: Rachelle https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37028 Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:09:00 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37028 >Hannah: Works is a stripped-down, basic word processor that lacks most of the advanced features of Word. Cheaper, yes, and as long as you're just writing for yourself and are not working with an editor or agent on revisions and such, it should be fine. Someday you may need to upgrade to Word if you begin working with a publisher.

And don't worry, your changes are not being tracked at all, so there's no chance they'll show up when you send out your MS!

]]> By: Hannah Hounshell https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37014 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:28:52 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37014 >Ok, I'm running microsoft works word processor. Unless I'm mistaken, its the 2007 version. I cannot find the tracking changes option, and when I did a search for it, nothing came up. Does anyone else use this version? Could you help me out, please?

I would be most grateful. The last thing I need is to send my chapters to an agent and have all the changes I made floating around where they can see them.

Thanks 😀

]]> By: sloanwriter https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37001 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:43:18 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-37001 >Once again enjoyed your post. My husband introduced me to Track changes to aid editing with my last book, without it trying to submit your book to Smashwords would have been impossible. The meatgrinder as it known to compile your word doc into multiple formats for easy download to Apple, Kindle, Sony, etc does not like standard formatting.
My next book will go the same way. So MS word and the editing tools are essentail.

]]> By: Ishta Mercurio https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36987 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 02:36:15 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36987 >One of my crit groups has been using Track Changes for over a year now, but I didn't know what it was called until a couple of months ago. And I definitely need to experiment with it some more – your comments about making changes and accepting changes (as opposed to just copying the old text into a new Word doc, making changes to that based on the comments, and saving it as a new file) had me scratching my head.

Thanks for the reminder!

]]> By: Charity Bradford https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36980 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:44:30 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36980 >OMGosh! I think I'm guilty of this. Those poor poor agents that I've queried.

*runs off to accept changes before hiding in the corner*

]]> By: Sandy Cooper https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36967 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:19:46 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36967 >A few years ago I became extremely familiar with these editing functions when I took a freelance editing job, editing a book manuscript for a friend who was self-publishing. I am so thankful for that experience.

Blessings,
Sandy

]]> By: Anne Lang Bundy https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36956 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:31:45 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36956 >WordPerfect is perfect for incorporating graphic layouts in documents and making my words go where I want with micro precision. MS Word goes way overboard in trying to think for me and I don't appreciate that. But Word is the standard for trading documents electronically, so I've learned to get along nicely with this necessary evil.

]]> By: Edwina https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36954 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:44:22 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36954 >Hi Rachelle,

I've used MS Word for ever. I am a proofreader for a number of people, including a publisher, and always use Track Changes. I insist on it – makes life much easier!

Blessings
Edwina Cowgill

]]> By: gwyncurbygodwin https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36934 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 04:10:09 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36934 >Thank you. I've worked with MS Word for years on my job at The University of South Florida and at home for my manuscripts and I absolutely never knew Track Changes and Comments were available. Thank you so much for blogging about this and teaching me something new.
God Bless

]]> By: Deleyna https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36933 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 03:32:59 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36933 >just an fyi: I use Open Office and have used track changes notes made from a friend who uses Word. It was not immediately obvious and I can't remember how I got them to work, but they did. Perhaps it is a version difference with the commenter who said earlier that it did not translate.

After having a software that used a proprietary format damage a manuscript, I do not use proprietary formats (like Word doc) for my writing. I can see the need for using it to communicate with editors, but I'll still have a copy saved in rtf.

(For the "anonymous" person editing the document with hand-entered double-spacing, Liquid Story Binder has a formatting center that can delete those for you in a couple of clicks. Use the free trial and get rid of that mess!)

I'm a little shocked that with all of the e-readers that do not read doc format the industry hasn't caught up and moved beyond Word.

]]> By: Renee Gold https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36932 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:25:55 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36932 >Thank you Rachelle for reminding me it's time to let go of fear, and start tracking those changes like a pro. If I can write a book using the computer, and maintain a blog, mastering Track Changes is next…

]]> By: dark_opus https://rachellegardner.com/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36931 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:18:10 +0000 http://rachellegardner.flywheelsites.com/2010/11/the-tools-of-your-trade/#comment-36931 >A tidbit of additional advice regarding Track Changes in Word…

Different versions of Word (such as XP, 2003, 2007, 2010) won't necessarily be able to comprehend all Track Changes attributes in a shared document. That's even if you save the document file in a so-called 'compatible' format for older versions of Word. So if you want to use Track Changes in your critique group and your group members have different versions of Word, be sure to try a quick experiment to see what works best.

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