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 […]
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Recent Posts
How to Use Microsoft Word 2016’s Spelling and Grammar Check (Tutorial)
Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar check is one of the simplest—yet most important—tools in the Office suite. The interface for the tool evolves with each iteration of the software, so today’s tutorial demonstrates how to use Microsoft Word 2016’s spelling and grammar check. This tutorial is for Microsoft Word 2016 running on Windows. This […]
Other Recent Posts
How to Write Non-U.S. Dollars as Words and Symbols
My last currency post explained how to write euros and pounds as words and symbols. Today’s post extends the foreign currency theme by explaining how to write non-U.S. dollars as words and symbols. The guidelines below are based on The Associated Press Stylebook (AP style) and The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago style). If your […]
How to Insert Trademark, Copyright, and Registered Symbols in PDFs (Tutorial)
This tutorial shows three methods for inserting trademark, copyright, and registered symbols in PDFs: alt codes, the Character Map, and copying and pasting. This tutorial is for editable PDFs in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, Acrobat Standard DC, and Acrobat Reader DC running on Windows. These steps should also work with most earlier versions of Acrobat […]
How to Write Euros and Pounds as Words and Symbols
In “How to Format Money in General Writing,” we looked at four different ways to write U.S. currency. Today, we’ll look at how to write euros and pounds as words, symbols, and currency codes. This post is based on the recommendations in The Associated Press Stylebook (AP style) and The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago […]
How to Use the Passive Voice Tool in Microsoft Word 2016 (Tutorial)
When Microsoft released Word 2016, the company surprised (and frustrated) many users by removing passive voice from Word’s readability statistics. However, Microsoft has redeemed itself by returning the passive voice tool in a recent software update. In celebration, today’s tutorial shows how to add the passive voice tool to Microsoft Word 2016’s Spelling & Grammar […]
How to Copy and Paste Microsoft Word Comments into a New Word File (Tutorial)
Have you ever wanted to copy and paste Microsoft Word comments into a new Word file in order to review them separately from the original document? Word doesn’t have an official method for copying and pasting comments; however, today’s tutorial shows the “work-around” method I use to accomplish that task—without having to copy and paste […]
Which Dictionary Is Best for You?
My last post tackled the question of which style guide is best for you. Style guides work hand in hand with dictionaries, so the logical next question is, which dictionary is best for you? Just like style guides, certain dictionaries enjoy wider usage within specific writing categories, so we’ll look at three popular options and […]
Which Style Guide Is Best for You?
Traditional authors, journalists, and those in academia usually follow their organization’s or publisher’s chosen style guide. But if you’re an independent author, blogger, or business owner, you can decide which style guide is best for your writing. Today’s post provides an overview of the “big four” style guides in American English: The Associated Press Stylebook […]
How to Search Multiple PDFs with Adobe Acrobat’s Advanced Search (Tutorial)
Have you ever needed to search for a word or phrase in multiple PDFs but you didn’t have time to search each PDF individually? Today’s tutorial shows how to search multiple PDFs simultaneously by using the Advanced Search tool in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, Acrobat Standard DC, and Acrobat Reader DC. This tutorial is also […]
When Should You Capitalize Oceans, Mountains, Lakes, and Other Geographic Features?
Is Colorado home to the Rocky Mountains or the Rocky mountains? Is the United States flanked by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans or the Atlantic and Pacific oceans? Besides inducing an urge to go hiking, this post explains when you should capitalize oceans, mountains, lakes, and other geographic features such as rivers, deserts, and dunes. […]
Three Ways to Print PDFs with Comments and Mark-Ups in Adobe Acrobat DC (Tutorial)
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and Adobe Acrobat Standard DC offer several ways to print PDFs with comments and mark-ups. Today’s tutorial explains how to (1) print comment and mark-up summaries on separate pages, (2) print comments and mark-ups with lines to the text, and (3) print comment and mark-up symbols without the text in the […]