NPS eXtyles User Guide
Microsoft Word and eXtyles
- Jenny Seifert (Unlicensed)
eXtyles works as an extension to Microsoft Word. eXtyles manipulates the Word document, but until converting the document to XML, the file remains in DOC (or DOCX) format and can be opened and edited on any system running Word—even on a system that does not have eXtyles installed, such as that of an external reviewer or freelance copyeditor.
After eXtyles is installed, eXtyles functions are accessible from an eXtyles tab that is added to the Word ribbon. All eXtyles processing is performed on Word files.
Users of eXtyles are expected to be conversant with the standard features and functions of MS Word.
Recommended Word Settings
Before using eXtyles it is useful to review the document to see whether it includes any formatting that is particularly unusual (e.g., especially large or small fonts, odd typefaces, garbage characters). Such formatting oddities may cause problems as you work with the content.
Fortunately, MS Word allows you to customize how you view content in a document and some settings help draw attention to potentially problematic formatting. The following describes settings that are recommended when using eXtyles.
The Style Area Pane: Review Styles
It is often useful, especially after using the eXtyles Paragraph Styling palette, to review the styles you have applied to the content of a document. Opening the Word style width area window on the left side of your document is the easiest way to review the styles you have applied. The Word style width area will be displayed in Word’s Draft viewing mode (on your screen only, not in the printed document) to the left of your screen.
To enable this feature in Word select Options from the File tab and select Advanced > Display > Style area pane width in Draft and Outline views:
Set the style area width setting to your preferred width (1 inch is a good starting value).
Click OK to exit the Word Options dialog. Now, when you view a document in Draft view you will see the style name of each paragraph displayed to the left of your screen.
You can page or scroll through your document to review the styles you have applied to each paragraph. You can close the style area pane by dragging on the vertical line all the way to the left edge of your Word window, or by resetting the value as described in this section to 0.
Nonprinting Characters
Nonprinting characters include spaces, tabs, soft returns, and paragraph marks, among others. Although these characters don’t appear in print (or, appear as spaces), they convey important information about how text is formatted and can impact the results of some eXtyles processes.
Because of this it is recommended that Word be configured to show nonprinting characters as special symbols in the document.
To view nonprinting characters simply toggle the Show/Hide ¶ button on the View tab in Word.
This button is also available on the eXtyles ribbon in the Common Word Commands section.
With this option selected paragraph symbols will appear at the end of each paragraph, spaces will appear as dots, tabs as right-pointing arrows, and so on.
Word Fields
Some eXtyles processes are not able to act on content that is formatted as a Word field (e.g., Reference Processing and Citation Matching). Because of this it is useful to know whether there are fields present in the document.
To easily see whether text in Word is a field set Field Shading in Word to Always. This setting will cause all embedded fields (e.g., citations and references set up with reference management tools such as EndNote) to appear with a gray shade. Often this gray shading will aid in identifying potential problems in Word documents.
To enable Field Shading, select the File tab in Word and navigate to Word Options > Advanced > Show document content > Field shading, and change from When Selected to Always.
In the document, fields will now be shaded.
Word Comments
Viewing Comments
eXtyles makes use of Word’s reviewing tools, including comment balloons. Comment balloons appear in Word’s Print Layout view and are best viewed and manipulated when Word’s Review ribbon is selected. Comments that are inserted during eXtyles Advanced Processing can also be viewed by rolling the mouse over the comment insertion point in Word’s Draft view.
To view comments, the Display for Review window on the Review ribbon must be set to All Markup.
The eXtyles ribbon also includes many of the basic features of the Word Review ribbon, including comment and track change navigation and Display for Review options.
eXtyles and Comments
Word comments are automatically inserted during some Advanced Processes (e.g., Bibliographic Reference Processing) if eXtyles has discovered an error or ambiguity that requires editorial review (or a query to the author). They may also be inserted by hand with the Comment option from the Review tab. Comments, or queries, are automatically renumbered, and they are placed appropriately in the XML during export.
You can view and manipulate comments via functions on the Word Review tab from the Balloons section of the Track Changes Options dialogue. Adding or deleting Word comments will automatically renumber the remaining comments.
eXtyles will preserve any Word comments that exist in the document prior to Activation.
Comments added by Advanced Processing functions are labeled with the “author name” of the appropriate Advanced Processing menu item. If you have added other comments (or if you are using Word 2010), the comments will appear with your name. You can select to see comments from a specific reviewer, or just from a specific Advanced Processing function, by selecting Specific People from the Show Markup option on the Review ribbon.
If you would like to delete all queries from a specific “author,” you can use the Remove Word Comments function in the eXtyles Cleanup dialog. Be sure to first click Clear All, and then check Remove Word Comments, and select the specific process (e.g., eXtyles Citation Match Check) for which you would like to remove the comments.