Ask Sam: How do I filter comments?

Last week, I showed you how to combine comments from multiple reviewers into one file. While it is helpful to have all of those comments in one place, you don't always want to see them all at once. Fortunately, Word allows you to filter comments by reviewer.

In Word 2003, you use the Reviewing Toolbar. Click the Show drop-down. In Word 2007, use the Review Tab and in the Tracking group, click Show Markup. In both versions, click the Reviewers menu item. You'll see a list of all the reviewers who made comments in the file.

Uncheck a name to hide that reviewer's comments. Repeat the process for each reviewer whose comments you want to hide. When you're ready to view the comments for someone you've hidden, simply check the name on the Reviewer menu, and those comments will appear again.

There will be no "Ask Sam" next week. I'll return on March 8.

Got a question about using Windows or Word? Send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com.

Ask Sam: How do I merge comments from multiple people?

Last week I showed you how to use Word comments to annotate your manuscript, but Word comments are also useful for critique groups. If everyone in the group uses this feature to critique each manuscript, you can merge those files into one that contains the comments from everyone in your group.

The easiest way to begin merging files is to save each file to the same location but with a different name. For example, let's say you've got a story called "Touchdown," and there are three other members of your group: Lew, Spencer, and Travis. You might have these files:

Touchdown-L
Touchdown-S
Touchdown-T

To merge the files in Word 2003:

1. Open the first file (Touchdown-L).
2. Click Tools > Compare and Merge Documents.
3. Select the second document (for us, Touchdown-S).
4. Click Merge.

Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each additional file to compare.

Once you've merged all the files, save the final document. You can save it as is (all comments merged into the last document you selected) or as a new copy. I usually save it as a new copy with "All" as part of the file name. In this case, it would be Touchdown-All.

Word 2007 users have to do things a little differently:

1. On the Review Tab, click Compare.
2. Click Combine.
3. Use the folder button on the left side of the Combine Documents window to launch the Open dialog.
4. Browse to and select the first document (Touchdown-L).
5. Use the folder button on the right side of the Combine Documents window to launch the Open dialog.
6. Browse to and select the second document (Touchdown-S).
7. Click More >>
8. In the bottom right corner of the Combine Documents window, click the radio button next to Original document.
9. Click OK.

The comments are merged into the first document. Save it and repeat the steps for each additional file to compare.

Now you've got all of the comments in one place for easy comparison and revision.

"Ask Sam" is a weekly feature. If you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer your questions here.

FWA Members Stay Active, Pull in Awards

We've got some active members out there! Brandi Winans, our speaker this month, gave a talk and book signing at the North Branch late last month. I'm including a couple of pictures here. In addition, Jackie Minniti continues to garner praise for her book, Project June Bug. She received a Silver - Special and Exceptional Needs in the Parenting category from Mom's Choice Awards.

Here's Brandi with our own photographer, Vicki Morgan (who will be giving a talk this month at the Main Branch):

 

Notice that in addition to her book she has additional materials.

Here's Brandi with two Friends from the North Branch:

John

Ask Sam: How do I add comments to Word?

A friend writes:

What are Word comments for? How do I use them?

Word comments are very handy for making notes on the text as you write or edit. They are also useful when you exchange Word files instead of physical copies with a critique group. By default, comments appear as notes in the margin of the document on screen and when you print. The easiest way to add a comment to any Word document is to press Ctrl + Alt + M. Word inserts a comment at the cursor location and moves the cursor into the comment balloon.

In Word 2003, there are two other quick ways to add a comment: Click Insert > Comment, or click the Comment button on the Reviewing toolbar.

In Word 2007, you can click the New Comment button on the Review tab.

Regardless of your version of Word, the new comment is attached to the word nearest the cursor if you don't have anything selected. You can also make a selection with the mouse (or use the arrow and shift keys) first, in which case the comment is applied to the selected text. Word moves the cursor into the comment balloon so that you can start typing.

To delete a Word comment, right-click the comment (either the balloon itself or the range of text in the document) and click Delete Comment on the context menu. You can also use the Delete Comment button on the Reviewing toolbar or Review tab.

If you exchange Word files with other people for comment, you can merge the copies you get back from them into a single file and see all of the comments at once. Next week, I'll show you how to do that.

"Ask Sam" is a weekly feature. If you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer your questions here.

Margo Hammond Delights a Great Crowd

Margo Hammond, one half of the Book Babes and former St. Petersburg Times book editor, spoke to 31 people at our January meeting. Discussing her mom's essays, which now make up a book, Margo talked and demonstrated slice-of-life stories. She answered questions throughout the evening, not only about memoir-style writing, but also about the writing life her mother had beginning in her mid-80s and her own odyssey in self-publishing the book.

It was a great start to the new year and we look to further associations with Margo.

Ask Sam: What about us Word 2003 users?

Last week, I provided instructions for setting up a different first page header in a Word 2007 document. Word 2003 users wanted to know why I left them out. So for y'all, here is how you accomplish the same task in Word 2003.

1. Open your document and select File > Page Setup. The Page Setup dialog appears.
2. Click the Layout Tab.
3. Check "Different first page" and click OK.
4. Click View > Header and Footer. The header at the top of page one of the file (your cover page) is labeled "First Page Header".
5. On the Header and Footer toolbar, click Show Next. The cursor moves to the second page header, where the label is "Header."
6. On the Header and Footer toolbar, click the Format Page Number Button.
7. Click the "Start at" radio button and set the value to 0. Click OK.
   

Once you have your header set up the way you want, either click the Close button on the Header and Footer toolbar, or double-click in the body of the document.

"Ask Sam" is a weekly feature. If you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer your questions here.

Ask Sam: How do I set up a different first page header in Word 2007?

Fiction writers usually need to have no header at all on the title page, but want a header including a page number starting with 1 on the second and all subsequent pages. Today I'll show you how to do just that.

There are two ways to get to the Header area in Word 2007:

• On the Insert tab, click the Header button and select Edit Header at the bottom of the list that appears
• If the header area of the page is visible, double-click it.

Either way, the cursor is placed in the Header area, which is labeled Header. A new ribbon tab, Design, appears and has focus. To set up your headers, perform these steps:

1. In the Options area in the Design tab, place a check next to Different First Page. The label of the Header area changes to First Page Header. You can insert first-page only header information here if you want, or leave it blank.
2. In the Navigation section of the Design tab, click Next Section. The label of the Header area changes to Header.
3. Set up your header information here. To insert page numbers, do this:
   • In the Header & Footer section, click Page Number.
   • Select Current Position. (Warning: If you select one of the "Top of Page" options, Word will blow away any header content that already exists!)
   • Select Plain Number. Word inserts a page number field at the cursor position.
4. Format the page number. When you insert the page number field, Word starts numbering at page one of your document, even if your first page header doesn't display anything. As a result, the first numbered page of your manuscript will be 2. You want it to be 1, so you'll need to format the page number by performing these steps:
   • In the Header & Footer section of the Design tab, click Page Number and select Format Page Number. The Page Number Format dialog is displayed.
   • Click the radio button next to Start at. The value of Start at is displayed as 1.
   • Change the value of Start at to 0 and click OK. The first page of your manuscript is now page 1, skipping the title page.
5. Either click Close Header and Footer or double-click the body of the document.

If you have more than one page of front matter, this won't work because you can't set the Start at value to less than 0. In that instance, you'll need to use Word section breaks-- but that's a topic for another day.

"Ask Sam" is a weekly feature. If you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer your questions here.

Ask Sam: Change spacing between bullets and list text

This week, I'm pleased to have my first reader question:

In Word 2007, when making a bullet list, how do I increase the spacing between the bullets and the text?

When you create a bullet or numbered list in Word, the bullet or number is separated from the list text by a quarter of an inch. There are several ways to change that distance. The method I've outlined below works in Word 2007 as well as Word 2003.

1. Click and drag to select the entire list. If you've only got one list item, you can simply put the cursor somewhere in that item.
2. Right-click the selection and click Paragraph on the context menu. The Paragraph dialog appears.
3. On the right side of the Indentation section, change the value of the "By" field to the amount of space you want to have between the bullet and the text.
4. Click OK.

Once you've set the Hanging Indent value, each time you press enter while working with that list, the new item will be formatted in the same way. These steps also work for numbered lists.

Thanks for the question! I hope this tip helps.

"Ask Sam" is a weekly feature. If you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer your questions here.

Ask Sam: Adding line numbers for easy critiquing

When a critique group discusses a manuscript, it can be difficult for everyone to find the same passage and follow along. When someone says paragraph two, does she mean the second complete paragraph, or is she counting the widowed lines from the previous page as a paragraph? Which sentence is she talking about? You can make it easy for everyone to zero in on a specific line by having Word number the lines in each manuscript. Open the story you want to work with and perform the steps for your version of Word.

Word 2003

1. Click File and Page Setup.
2. Click the Layout tab.
3. Click the Line Numbers button.
4. Check the Add line numbering checkbox.
5. Click OK to accept the default selection.
6. Click OK to close the Page Layout dialog.

To turn line numbering off when you're done with it, perform the same steps but in step four, clear the Add line numbering checkbox.

Word 2007
This is one of the rare instances where doing something in Word 2007 is easier than Word 2003. There are only three steps:

1. Click the Page Layout Tab.
2. Click Line Numbers.
3. Select Restart Each Page.

To turn line numbering off when you're done with it, perform the same steps but select "None" in the last step.

"Ask Sam" is a weekly feature. I have several topics lined up but I can use suggestions. If you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer your questions here.

Ask Sam: Where's my mouse pointer?

Ever lose your mouse pointer? It happens to me all the time. Maybe I park the pointer at the edge of the screen--or when I'm using multiple monitors, on the screen I'm not looking at. Sometimes I simply lose track of where it was when I last used it. Rather than hunt for the mouse pointer, I use one of Windows' accessibility features to locate it by pressing the Ctrl key.

To turn this feature on, perform the steps outlined below. Note: These steps assume that the default settings for how things appear are in place; if you've changed how the control panel appears, you may have to poke around a little to find the mouse pointer settings.

1. Click the Start Button.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Depending on your Operating System, perform one of the following steps:
   • Vista or Windows 7: Click Ease of Access.
   • Windows XP: Click Printers and Other Hardware.
4. Depending on your Operating System, perform one of the following steps:
   • Vista or Windows 7: Click Change how your mouse works.
   • Windows XP: Click Mouse.
5. If you are using Vista or Windows 7, near the bottom, click Mouse settings. (XP users skip to next step.)
6. Select the Pointer Options tab.
7. Check "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key"
8. Click OK and close the control panel.

Now press the CTRL key, and a circle will appear for a moment on the screen, centered on the mouse pointer location.

This is the first in a weekly series of tips and tricks for Windows and Microsoft Word. I have some topics lined up already, but if you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send an email to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer them here.

Merry Christmas and Joyful Holidays 2009

Greetings, members and guests,

I just want to extend my hope that each of you experience the holidays in a most satisfying way, and carry throughout the year the same joy of this season. If your season is difficult, I hope you might find one corner of your world where the light shines a little brighter, and reflect that light to others. It has been a joy of mine to get to know some of you better this past year, and I hope to meet many more new people in the coming year.

I'm looking forward to the new year and our kick-off speaker, Margo Hammond, former book editor for the St. Petersburg times and one of the Book Babes, the dynamic duo of reading recommenders who appear on WMNF radio on Wednesday mornings at 11:30am. (You can also listen to archived shows on the radio website: www.wmnf.org.)

Membership Note: This past year we show a net gain of 19 new members! Thanks to everyone for making our group a warm and friendly one, filled with writers excited about their craft.

John

Donna Cutting Introduces the Sexiest Man Alive

"Running makes me think of death." Yeah, let me give you a good therapist's number. "A cockroach crawled across his face, and he looked up to realize he had spent the night in a dumpster, his best sleep in months." And they didn't even leave the light on. The dark side of professional sports; what it's like to be a foster child; mapping Alaska in a wild adventure -- present books and future books, FWA members practiced their pitches under the expert eye of certified professional speaker Donna Cutting tonight, Thursday, December 10th.

Donna warmed up the group with a quick review of the Celebrity Experience, then covered some basics of presentation and why a writer might want to get comfortable in front of an audience. She broke the structure of a presentation into three parts: Opening, Body, and Closing. Sounds very similar to a 3-act play to me.

After each brave writer made their pitch, Donna provided feedback on their strengths and weaknesses, and was impressed with each person's preparation. Donna provided a handout that gave a concise list of the main objectives and points of each part of a presentation.

Oh, and the sexiest man? He spoke of the cockroach, but shall remain nameless. Guess you just had to be there!

Until next year,
John

In the Chair

Fellow writers!
I'm blogging from Sonoma Coffee Cafe on 66th St. just north of 70th Ave. Only open about 4 months, it is much less crowded than Panera, Starbucks, etc. Free Wi-Fi, but no, I'm not doing my nanowrimo thing here. I'm working on my first novel. Just read some statistics that say only a few first novels ever get published. That won't deter me! It may be that it's just the way to get your feet wet in the process, to understand the amount of work involved. Because it's a lot! I'm not going to kid you.

I'm looking forward to Donna Cutting next month. I'll firm up the topic on Tuesday when she calls, but it's about presentation. When I observe people at book signings, the ones who can speak seem to have the most success. That might be a good reason to do the open voice poetry readings. (No mic, so nothing will blaring!) You would have a chance to practice in front of an audience.

Okay, my butt's in the chair, it's nice and quiet here, uncluttered, and I'm going back to my revising and rewriting.

Success to all,
John

FWA puts the Dazzle in Shimmer

Congratulations, group! Bev Browning, ghostwriter from Gainesville (and professional writer for 25 years), told me that our group offered greater responses to her Shimmer workshop prompt than any other she has taught. She was impressed with your capabilities! (I am, too, and honored to know so many of you.)

Her unique approach to creating subtext, to building depth in our words, enlightened everyone who attended in the refreshed atmosphere of the remodeled library. I shared with her later that I had never come across someone diagramming sentences the way she did. It gave a visual sense to the rhythm and cadence, clarifying something that we sometimes think of only with our ears, and not our eyes.

I know she was excited to be here, and I mentioned that I felt the same that she would come and share her knowledge with us from that far away. Her bonus material on the law was also well-received, generating good questions and forcing me to trash a couple of ideas that were floating around in my library of story ideas.

As we close out the year next month I am grateful for all that I have learned from you, the members of FWA, and our guests, through your generosity of spirit and insightful analysis of my work. I hope everyone feels they have grown stronger this year as a writer, love the process and the time spent writing, and find continued and greater success next year. Every time you put fingers to keys, pen to paper, in my mind, you are successful.

Thanks!
John

We're Moving Back!

Greetings!

As you'll notice at the top of this page, we are moving back to the Main library for the next 6 months. Renovations have been completed and the library opens on the 9th. Our first meeting is on the 12th, featuring that bubbly, crazy, celebrity ghostwriter, Bev Browning. She's coming from Gainesville, and will present a workshop on subtext, the art of how to put things between the lines. Her workshop is titled 'Shimmer' and everyone who experienced it at the Anhinga Summer Workshop gave it rave reviews.

I'm starting NaNoWriMo in a couple days (Sunday, to be exact), and my name is JohnnyStPete. If you join the national novel writing month website to keep track of trying to write 50,000 words in a month, look me up!

Hope to see you soon, and keep on writing,

John

Final Day!

The final day is here, but hasn't yet begun. I'm exhausted, but had a great time getting to know old friends better, meet new people, create scenes here and there. Just having fun. I won't name all those who made this conference one I'll remember, that would probably be as interesting as the Oscar acceptance speech for best gaffer. There is one workshop left. I am skipping the one that started 25 minutes ago, a choice between two different writing prompts. I've written enough, revising my first page each night, completing 3 more reflections (poetry) to finish November, and adding posts here when I could.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the November meeting. I will begin email reminders mid-week once I've established our meeting place. I intend to have that task completed by Wednesday night.

Keep writing, and keep talking to writers!
John

Saturday Evening Post

Oh man! What a blast this conference has been. Not only have some of the workshop presentations been very good (though way too short, but it's a conference, not a workshop!), but meeting all the people has been a blast. I think that's one of the most valuable if not the most valuable things to take away from a conference. It's about meeting people, listening to them, figuring out what the current trends are or how people view their jobs (in the publishing business), and just getting to a certain comfort level around those you want to be able to impress when the time comes. (For me, that's not quite yet here.) Gotta get ready for the dinner. I'll squeeze one more in if I can. Post, not dinner. There's too much food here! (Not enough water/soda.)

Later!
John

Night Before Conference and all through the hotel...

The volunteers were getting instructions on what to do, which should make this conference the smoothest running! Preparations sound really great, and I hope it will contribute to a great experience for everyone.

Note for next month! I've been in touch with Bev, who is following our blog from New York (where she is currently working), and she's excited to be presenting her Shimmer workshop here, a hands-on workshop on creating subtext. (The underlying ideas and messages in your story.) She is bringing another member of Anhinga with her, whom I'm sure you'll enjoy meeting, a girl named Sue. (That's right, not a boy!)

And lest I forget, she sends cream cheese greetings! This lady is phenomenal, and someone from whom I think you would learn so much. (I hate those kinds of sentences, but hey, I think that's grammatically correct.)

I'll bring a copy of the Collections book to our next meeting if anyone would like to see what it looks like. I'd like to set up some kind of group to help those interested in submitting for next year that would offer guidance and critique prior to the submission deadline. It would be great to see more of us get published!

I'm also bringing back information on Margie's offerings, which I'll share at the next couple of meetings.

Gotta grab some sleep before the early start. Registration opens at 6:30am!!!

Later!
John

Margie Lawson Afternoon Impressions

Margie Lawson's workshop wrapped up this afternoon, and tomorrow begins the conference. She whipped through the material like a whirling dervish, trying to cover as much as possible while still giving the attendees the understanding needed to use her tool, the EDITS system.

I think there are several important things I took from this workshop. Any tool you find, if you want to see if it's for you or not, you have to USE it. You can't just look at it and say, 'oh, maybe, maybe not.' So I've tried the snowflake method, I've tried several other things, and have come to understand what works for me. With this understanding I can say that Margie's tool looks very good, and is something I will use, at least on some scenes or chapters.

I've already discovered I need to rewrite my most important scenes, in order to ramp up their emotional impact. It reminded me of what some of my readers (editors, critiquers) have said. 'You just did something major to a character and the character didn't respond. Huh?'

Margie took a passage from a well-known author's book and went over it showing how she would use her system of highlighting on it. Someone looked for a 'hard and fast' rule, but she demurred. There is not right or wrong pattern of highlighting. It's purpose is for you to discover the tone of your story, and whether it makes sense the way you've written it.

Based on what I've seen from her, I'd recommend getting more of her information. It could definitely help!

Tomorrow starts the conference, and I'll post as I can, outside of my volunteering duties. I also took a first look at the FWA Family Collections book (Chrissy let me take a look), and I found it to be very professional. I highly encourage everyone to take a shot at next year's collection, and will do something with our group for those that want to work on a submission.

Later!
John

Margie Lawson mid-day 1st Impression - She rocks! Hits the nail on the...!

Oh, that's so cliche! And she'd be the first to point it out to me. The morning of this session has been filled with great information, and in looking at the first page of my story for maybe the hundredth time, I still found it woefully weak! (Alliteration, a tool that can be used to good effect, sometimes.) She has promoted her work during this time, and I intend to take a closer look at it. Based on Sam's recommendation, she is everything promised, and more.

Of course, implementing her system, even part of it, requires work. Are you up to it? Or do you like to just write and think, it's really good just the way it is. She mentioned a technique I first learned at Anhinga, that of recording your reading so you can listen to it. I think it might make all the difference to listen after the fact rather than while you read out loud. So, I'm going to try it.

Check out her website and sign up for her newsletter. It also comes with good tips, as some have mentioned in the class today just by pointing things out to everyone.

Later, and keep on writing!
John