Microsoft Word includes twenty-seven special characters; of those, the three most popular (or at least the ones I receive the most questions about) are the copyright, trademark, and registered symbols. So, today’s tutorial focuses on inserting the copyright, trademark, and registered symbols in Microsoft Word using the Symbol dialog box, keyboard shortcuts, and AutoCorrect. Please […]
Main Content
Writing Tips for the Real World
Welcome to your source for easy-to-follow writing tips, editing advice, and document software tutorials for the real world.
Are you looking for an editor? I am currently welcoming new clients!
I am a Chicagoland freelance editor with twelve years of experience copyediting and proofreading business, technical, research, and nonfiction content.
Visit my Hire Me page to learn how I can make your writing shine!
Recent Posts
How to Write Vertical Lists
Recently, we looked at how to write run-in lists, which are lists that appear inside sentences. In this tutorial, we’ll explore guidelines for how to write vertical lists. Vertical lists are set apart from the surrounding text and are usually prefaced with bullets or sequential numbers or letters. Vertical lists can be ordered or unordered […]
Other Recent Posts
How to Restrict Editing in Adobe Acrobat (Tutorial)
Adobe has improved the editing tools in recent versions of Acrobat. However, you may not always want other users to be able to use those editing tools on your PDF. This tutorial explains how to restrict editing in Adobe Acrobat Pro and Adobe Acrobat Standard. These steps also include printing restrictions. First, we’ll look at […]
How to Write Run-In Lists
Run-in lists are incorporated into sentences, as opposed to horizontal lists that stand apart from the surrounding sentences. Let’s look at four different ways to write run-in lists. Run-In Lists with Commas Commas can separate simple run-in list items.1 Three famous cartoon cats are Garfield, Sylvester, and Felix the Cat. The movie Homeward Bound featured […]
How to Restrict Style Changes in Microsoft Word (Tutorial)
My last software tutorial explained how to restrict Track Changes and comments in Microsoft Word. Similarly, today’s tutorial shows how to restrict style changes in Microsoft Word. We’ll walk through the steps for restricting specific changes and all changes. In Word, styles include (but are not limited to) fonts, font sizes and colors, italics, bold […]
When to Use Italics or Quotation Marks with Foreign Words
The following guidelines explain when to use italics or quotation marks with foreign words to set them apart from the surrounding English text. These guidelines are for general words in business documents, nonfiction, journalism, and academic writing but aren’t for proper nouns, such as people’s names or place names, which typically don’t require special formatting. […]
How to Restrict Editing in Microsoft Word (Tutorial)
Microsoft Word lets us block all comments and Track Changes by saving files as Read Only. However, have you ever wanted to block just some comments or Track Changes instead of all of them? Today’s tutorial explains how to restrict editing in Microsoft Word. Specifically, we will (1) limit edits to comments only, (2) prevent […]
How to Write Large Numbers
According to the Astrophysical Journal, our universe is home to 200 trillion galaxies—that’s ten times more than the 200 billion galaxies previously believed to be in existence.1 I can’t envision 200 billion galaxies, let alone 200 trillion. However, I can envision writing large numbers according to the recommendations provided by our primary style guides. So, […]
Three Differences between Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Pro
Today’s post discusses three differences between Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Pro to help you decide which program you should use for your PDF projects. First, a quick note on cost: Acrobat Reader is free. Acrobat Pro is available as an annual subscription called Acrobat Pro DC (DC stands for Document Cloud) and as a one-time […]
Direct Quotations and Paraphrasing Explained
You can use direct quotations or paraphrasing to include someone else’s writing or speech in your own writing. Direct quotations can be formatted as run-in or block quotations. Today’s post explains direct quotations and paraphrasing in more detail…and you can quote me on that! Direct Quotations Direct quotations present the original writer’s or speaker’s words […]
Three Ways to Indent Paragraphs in Microsoft Word (Tutorial)
Block paragraphs are the default in Microsoft Word. Block paragraphs are aligned with the left margin with no indentation and are visually separated by line spaces. Although block paragraphs are popular for online text (this blog uses block paragraphs), traditionally indented paragraphs are more common in print publishing, business writing, and academic research. Today’s tutorial […]
When Should You Capitalize Geographic Regions in the United States?
Is Colorado in the west or the West? Did the Allman Brothers Band play southern rock or Southern rock? Am I a midwesterner or a Midwesterner? Today’s post explains when to capitalize geographic regions in the United States. It also looks at when to capitalize those regions when they are used as adjectives and to […]
