A Macro for Line-Editing in Microsoft Word

Today at Gem State Writers, I'm talking about the What, Why, and How of Line Edits.

But here, I wanted to share (with permission) the excellent tool my husband programmed to assist with line edits.  He watched me spending hour after hour using CTRL+F to go through my list of potentially problematic line edit word list...and then programmed a button into Word that instantly highlights every one of these.

Line edits went much, much faster.  Here's the technical bits:

The list of words is easily customized.  It is a Visual Basic Applications script so it should work with all versions of Word, though how to set it up will be different for newer versions of Word. On the new version the Visual Basic Editor is in Developer tab.

To Start: On the Word menu, go to Tools, then Macros. Then go to the Visual Basic Editor. The default module should be open. You can go down to the bottom of that module or start a new one to put in this new subroutine. To use just place in the Array() in quotes any word that you wish to highlight. The highlighted words are in yellow, but changing the color is easy -- wdRed, for instance, to make it red.

MatchWholeWord is set to true so it will highlight only if it is the whole word.  This means the list needs "was" and "wasn't" for both to highlight, but words like "wash" won't highlight.  This can be set to False instead.  Here is the macro:

Sub LineEdits()

Dim range As range
Dim i As Long
Dim TargetList 

TargetList = Array("was", "were", "just", "very", "only", "really", "started", "began", "even", "able", "think", "wasn't")

For i = 0 To UBound(TargetList)

Set range = ActiveDocument.range

With range.Find
.Text = TargetList(i)
.Format = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = True
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False

Do While .Execute(Forward:=True) = True
range.HighlightColorIndex = wdYellow
Loop
End With
Next

End Sub

To use this macro,  click Tools, Macro, Macros, and then run LineEdits.  The highlighted text can be changed like any normal highlighted text.

To make a Line Edit shortcut button on the toolbar, in Word 2003, right click on the toolbar, select Customize, then select the tab Commands. In that tab scroll down to Macros. Once you select macros the name of your subroutine will appear as something similar to: (Normal.Module1.LineEdits); select it and drag and drop it on to the toolbar where you want it to appear. You will now have a button with the long and ugly label: (Normal.Module1.LineEdits). To rename it right click again on the toolbar and select Customize, then right click on the button and change the name field to what ever you want, such as LineEdits.

This macro was created with the help of Stack Exchange.

Lots of thanks to my awesome husband for creating this and sharing!

K-Drama for the Epic Fantasy Reader

At least once a week, I read something on Twitter about TV that makes me want to respond "you really should be watching historical Korean dramas."  Frustrated with episodic stories that go nowhere? Historical k-drama. Longing for wide-sweeping, big-scope stories?  K-drama.  Want interesting female characters?  K-drama.  Lamenting there's no chance for tragedy?  K-drama.

I'm fairly new to watching this genre, but it explodes my epic-loving brain.  Sweeping stakes.  Politics that really...well, make sense as politics.  Often, novels and movies talk vaugely about "political power" or "influence," but the dramas show how people are power.

Really, the historical k-dramas utilize a whole series of tropes I'd never seen before.  The first historical k-drama I watched, I felt like I'd just discovered Robin Hood and King Arthur for the first time.  It's changed the way I think about fiction and storytelling.

And so, if you love epic fantasy...big, rolling stories that are worth every second...I've got a pair of reccomendations.

Faith.  A warrior travels forward in time, looking for a legendary doctor to save the Queen's life, and brings back a plastic surgeon instead.  This story is half-historical, set in the mid-14th century reign of King Gongmin of Goryeo -- a turbulent time where the king tries to assert Goryeo's independence from Yuan (China).  But there's also some fantasy elements -- a bit of time travel, and some combat magic.

This is an easy show to drop into.  Having someone from the modern world kidnapped into 1300's politics allows for a gentler learning curve.  For all the sweeping drama -- coups, military maneuvers, betrayals and manipulations -- I loved the occasional funny character moments that sneak in.  The king and queen's relationship here also gave me the epiphany that I don't hate romance...I just like a specific kind of romance, which this had in spades.  Literally, I jumped up and down and squealed like a broken saxophone when this married couple held hands.  One day, I hope I write a romantic plot line half as emotional.  Overall, this series is twenty-four episodes of goodness.

Brief warning: Besides the fighting, there's a decent amount of surgery/medical drama here.  If blood makes you queasy, close your eyes and watch with someone who can read the subtitles to you.

The Great Queen Seon Deok.  This show chronicles the rise of the first Queen of Silla.  The scope, time-wise, is sweeping -- the show begins with Queen Seon Deok's father as a child and ends with her death (She reigned from 634 to 647; I don't think it's a spoiler she's no longer with us).  But every bit of it is packed with suspenseful politics, so I never felt like I was waiting to get to the "good parts."  It's all good.

Mishil -- that nice-looking lady in the purple dress -- is perhaps the scarriest antagonist I've found in fiction.  The worst thing Smaug can do, after all, is kill you.  Worse, I like her so much that if I were in this show...I'm not sure if I'd work for her or against her.  She is devastatingly clever, and she takes care of those who serve her.

Princess Deokman (later Queen Seon Deok) proves a worthy opponent to Mishil, especially with Kim Yushin backing her up.  But, to my delight, the story's conflict isn't broken up into "teams."  The various people are actually, well, people -- with their own motivations that don't map directly to what Mishil or Princess Deokman want.  It's fascinating to watch allies become opponents, depending on the issue.

Instead of portraying Queen Seon Deok as remarkable because she took the throne as a woman, the drama portrays her as remarkable because of her accomplishments -- like improving the conditions of the poor and building Cheomseongdae, the first observatory in the Far East.  Awesome.

I could go on.  And on.  And on.  But I'll cut it short here.  Faith is available on Hulu and DramaFever.  The Great Queen Seon Deok can be watched at Crunchyroll and DramaFever.

"Bricks and Sunlight"

My short story "Bricks and Sunlight" is now out in Volume 3 of Suddenly Lost in Words.  Over Memorial Day weekend, on the 26th and 27th, the issue will be available for free on Amazon, here.

I've been chewing over the ideas in "Bricks and Sunlight" for a long time, but the ideas only recently grew into a story.  I hope you enjoy!