How to Normalise Your Manuscript

10 September 2022

It’s a challenge to maintain consistent spacing within a manuscript. Iterative edits, multiple users, along with copy and paste oddities all contribute to the problem. While the manuscript may look fine on the surface, converting it to other formats can bring out unexpected quirks. E.g., paragraphs that start with a space, or create blank lines because of a trailing space(s).

This tutorial shows you how to normalise a manuscript using a series of Microsoft Word’s Find and Replace functions. This process will cut down on the time needed compared to doing so manually.

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Editing, Microsoft Word, Tools, Tutorials, Writing

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Double-Spacing, Find, Find and Replace, Manuscript, Microsoft, Microsoft Word, Normalise, Normalize, Replace, Single-Spacing, Spacing, Tabulations, Tutorial, Walkthrough

Normalise a Manuscript in 4 Easy Steps

17 October 2021

Copy and paste these instructions into the Find and Replace function within Microsoft Word. Replace All can be used for every operation except for the last two.

FIND	REPLACE	WILDCARD	ACTION
[^s^t^32]{1,}	^32	Yes	Single and consistent spacing
^32{1,}(^13)	\1	Yes	No trailing spaces at end of paragraph
(^13)^32{1,}([!^13])	\1\2	Yes	No leading spaces at the beginning of a paragraph
(^13){2,}	\1	Yes	Removes empty lines
[!.\!\?””;,…—\*^12](^13)		Yes	Paragraphs ending without punctuation
[.\!\?””;,][!^32^13^12””]		Yes	Stuck sentences and other oddities

Normalise a Manuscript in 4 Easy Steps is available on Google Drive.

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Microsoft Word, Tools, Tutorials

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Cheat Cheat, Find, Find and Replace, Guide, Manuscript, Microsoft, Microsoft Word, Replace, Single-Spacing, Spacing, Tabulations, Tutorial, Word

Preparing for Google+ Using Microsoft Word

5 February 2016

The Find and Replace capabilities within Microsoft Word are impressive. However, the interface is not necessarily intuitive and some of features can work against one another. Once aware of these limitations, we can use this capability to perform a series of tasks quickly and efficiently.

Medium-Link — Preparing for Google+ Using Microsoft Word also available on Medium.com

This tutorial will reference the same text throughout. A sample to follow along with is included below:

“A vision from the past becomes a writer’s deadly obsession,” Evelyn Chartres.

The Portrait is a Gothic horror about Victoria Frost, an author who develops an unhealthy obsession for her character. As events unfold, her obsession begins to turn on her forcing the author to question her sanity. Is this simply insanity or are there other factors in play?

The Portrait is a mixture of contemporary and historical pieces with the latter revolving around her character and muse. In this novel, the author will revisit an iconic scene using both prose and art yielding new pieces to the puzzle.

Posting on Google+

Google+ is a social media site, which supports limited formatting when posting. These features however are not selectable through a menu, but interpreted by special characters embedded within the posts. For convenience, three (3) formatting options are shown below.

Italics, _Word_
Bold, *Word*
Strikethrough, -Word-

Say you have a document which has been drafted in WordPress or Microsoft Word with formatting in place. Using the example provided, we can find Italics, Bold and Strikethrough formatted text and replace add in our special characters.

Note: Due to the similarity in methods, only Italics is covered.

From the Home Ribbon, click on Replace as which will pop-up the Find and Replace window.

First, ensure your cursor is in the Find what textbox. In bottom-left corner there is a Format button, click on the Format button then select Font from the pop-up menu.

Note: If you cannot see the Format button, then click on the More > > button. It will expand the window and display additional capabilities.

The Find Font window will appear and provides an extensive search capability. In this situation, we need only select Italic from Font style section. Click OK to proceed.

Repeat the previous two (2) steps, this time ensuring the cursor is in the Replace with textbox. This time select Not Italic from the Font style section.

The image below shows how Find and Replace has been configured to search for Font: Italic and replace with Font: Not Italic. This removes the formatting and prevents it being found in later searches.

To have Google+ see the formatting we need to insert an underscore (_) at either end of the relevant text. Start by typing in two (2) underscores (__) in the Replace with textbox then move your cursor between these characters.

Click on the Special button then select Find What Text as shown below.

This inserts ^& into the Replace with textbox in between the underscores. This sequence of characters references text found during the search.

If necessary, adjust the Replace with textbox to look like the image below. When satisfied, click on Replace All, which brings up the following pop-up.

Click on the OK button, close the Find and Replace window to find the following result:

“A vision from the past becomes a writer’s deadly obsession,” Evelyn Chartres.

The Portrait is a _Gothic horror_ about _Victoria Frost_, an author who develops an unhealthy obsession for her character. As events unfold, her obsession begins to turn on her forcing the author to question her sanity. Is this simply insanity or are there other factors in play?

The Portrait is a mixture of contemporary and historical pieces with the latter revolving around her character and muse. In this novel, the author will revisit an iconic scene using both prose and art yielding new pieces to the puzzle.

Repeat the above to replace out Bold *^&* and Strikethrough -^&- fonts. When done, all you need to do is Copy and Paste your text into your Google+ post and you are set!