What You Will Learn

Word is a beast, no doubt about it. It can make you crazy with arbitrary changes in font, spaces that come and go. And is there an easier way to get around your manuscript than endless scrolling?

If you’d like to tame the beast, this course is for you.

Your Goal for This Course

Every writer’s first goal when thinking of Word is to get the story down with a minimum of fuss and aggravation; screaming and hair pulling is not a requirement.

You want manuscripts that are clutter-free and easy to read, revise, and navigate.

And you want a pain-free way to create the dreaded synopsis.

Definitions

The following terms are used throughout this document:

Cursor The arrow, or I-beam, that shows mouse movement.
Insertion Point The blinking vertical bar that shows where you will be inserting text.
Ribbon The big band across the top of the screen showing all the Word commands.
Tab A collection of commands and tools organized by task. In Word for Windows the Tabs are Home, Insert, Design, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, and View.
Group The subsets within a tab. E.g. on the Home tab, the groups are Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Styles, and Editing.
Pane Functional areas that open on the sides or bottom of the screen.

Accessing the Exercise Files

Two types of supplementary documents are available for you to use during the exercises in each lesson.

  • Mock Manuscripts (MockMSx.docx): These documents are full of gibberish called Ipso Lorem. Most of the exercises use these throw-away documents instead of your valuable manuscripts. You’ll be instructed when to access them, rename them, and save them. You'll find them at the beginning of a lesson.
  • Review Manuscripts (ReviewMSx.pdf): Also full of gibberish, these are documents for you to compare to your exercises. The review manuscripts are numbered to match their corresponding exercises. You’ll be instructed when to access them. You'll find them at the end of a lesson.

All of the exercise documents are preloaded with one of the two templates that you receive as part of this course. Don’t expect your version of Word, or Word out-of-the-box to match these customized Styles. We'll talk more about the templates in Lesson 4.

Prior Versions of Word for Windows

The access points and available options of the functions taught in Mastering Word for Fiction Writers can differ from version to version of Word for Windows.

Differences are noted in each lesson.

I used active installations of Word 2007, Word 2013, and Word 2016/365 to create my lessons. Instructions for other versions are based on extensive research.

All screen shots are taken from Word 2016/365 in early 2017.

Other Ways of Doing Things

In all versions of Word, there are many ways to do the same thing. The lessons show my preferred method. If you search the web or poke around in the Ribbons and Menus, you’ll likely find another way that may suit you better.

Support is a Comment Away

Join the private Facebook group @MasteringWord to chat with Joan and other students and get your questions answered.

You may also add a question to the comment section at the end of each lecture.

Using Teachable.pdf
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