Microsoft Word and eXtyles
- Jo Ripoll
- Sylvia Hunter (Unlicensed)
- Jenny Seifert (Unlicensed)
Here’s what you need to know about eXtyles and Word
eXtyles is a Word plugin that leverages Word functions to automate and simplify your editing work. All eXtyles processing is carried out on Word files.
eXtyles manipulates the Word document, but until you export to XML, the file remains in .docx (or .doc) format and can be opened and edited on any system running Word—including those that don’t have eXtyles installed, such as an external reviewer or freelance copyeditor’s computer.
After installing eXtyles, you can access eXtyles functions from an eXtyles tab on the Word ribbon.
Users of eXtyles are expected to be conversant with the standard features and functions of MS Word.
eXtyles and other word processing programs
It’s important to note that eXtyles can not be run in word processing programs other than Word; in fact, once eXtyles processes have been run on a document, opening that document in a program such as Google Docs can damage important styling and tagging.
On this page
Applies to all eXtyles products:
Word Settings
To get the best results from eXtyles it can be helpful to understand how to review and modify specific Word settings. For example, you can customize the Word ribbon to show options you commonly use and hide those you don’t.
Tip: It's often useful, especially during and after using the eXtyles Paragraph Styling palette, to review the styles you have applied to a document. The easiest way to do this is in Word’s Draft view.
Word Views
Because eXtyles makes heavy use of Word styles, it can be very helpful to see how your content has been styled.
Draft view
The easiest way to review styles in Word is to use the Style Area pane in Draft view on the left side of your document.
To enable this feature:
Go to the View tab on the ribbon.
Select Draft in the “Views” section.
You should now see the style name for each paragraph is displayed to the left of your screen. You can page or scroll through your document to review the styles and spot errors.
If you are in Draft view but can’t see the Style Area pane, you need to adjust the width of the pane. You can do this in 2 ways.
Option 1
Go to Word File menu > Options > Advanced > Display > Style area pane width in Draft and Outline views. Change the Style Area Width setting from 0” to your preferred width (any non-zero value).
Option 2
After turning Draft View on, hover over the margin line until you see the sizing handles (two vertical parallel lines with left and right arrows). Click and drag the sizing handle to the left or right to set your preferred width.
Print Layout View
eXtyles will add Word comments during Auto-Redact and certain Advanced Processes. It is best to view these comments in Print Layout View so that they appear as marginal balloons.
Word Comments
During some eXtyles processes (e.g., Bibliographic Reference Processing), eXtyles inserts Word Comments to flag errors or ambiguities that require editorial review (or a query to the author).
Comments are automatically renumbered when they are added or deleted. Further, eXtyles can be configured to retain unresolved Word comments in the XML (contact eXtyles technical support for more information).
You can view and manipulate comments using Word’s Review tab.
Comments added by eXtyles processes are labeled with the “author name” of the appropriate process menu item.
If you have added Comments, they will appear with the name associated with your configuration of Word (see Word > Options > General).
You can choose to see comments from a specific reviewer, or from a specific eXtyles process, by using the reviewer selection drop-down on the Review tab.
If an eXtyles process adds an unusually large number of Comments and you would like to delete all Comments from that process, you can use either eXtyles Cleanup > Remove Word Comments or Post-Processing Cleanup.
Be sure to first click Clear All, then check Remove Word Comments, then select the specific process (e.g., eXtyles Citation Matching) for which you would like to remove the comments.
Comment balloons appear in Word’s Print Layout view and are best viewed and manipulated when the Word Review ribbon is selected.
Comments are visible only when Word is showing All Markup / Final Showing Markup (depending on your version of Word). If your document contains Comments but you can’t see them, check the drop-down menu shown below:
The eXtyles tab also includes many of the basic features of Word’s Review tab, including comment navigation; accept/reject changes; and view/hide nonprinting characters.
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