Breakout Editing

Chat with Dori

Dori Harrell, Freelance Editor

Contact Dori to talk about your project and its needs. Once you've introduced yourself to Dori, she'll ask to preview your manuscript and will provide a sample edit.

For a sample edit, please include

the words "sample edit" in the subject line
your first few chapters attached as a Microsoft Word file (Dori will select a few pages)
the type of service you're looking for
your back-cover pitch (or a short summary of your work)
number of pages and words (or projected word count)
your publishing goals (Self-publishing? Traditional? Or trying for traditional but like the self-publishing option? Other?)

Please include the information about your project (including the blurb or summary) in the body of the email and attach a Microsoft Word file of your chapters.

doriharrell@gmail.com

Microsoft Word Track Changes

Dori uses the Microsoft Word Track Changes feature when editing or proofing documents. It's a handy tool that allows authors to view her suggestions without missing a single in-text suggestion or comment. While there are different ways to use Track Changes, Dori's method allows authors the chance to preview changes, which prevents mishaps.

If you haven't used Track Changes yet, it's a worthwhile effort to familiarize yourself with it.

Dori uses Microsoft Word 2021. If you use an earlier version, the setup may be a little different. Play around and have fun with it!

After a document has been edited:

Place your cursor at the top of the document.
At the top of the Word file, click on the Review pane. In the center, you will see the Track Changes icon. If it’s not highlighted, click on Track Changes. The feature is on when the icon is highlighted.
In the Review pane, on the right, click the Next icon. This will automatically take you to the first suggested fix.
Review Dori’s suggestion and decide if you want to keep the change.
If you want to accept the change, at the top, click the drop-down menu for the Accept icon, and select the second choice (Accept Change).
Preview the change and make sure it went through correctly.
If you want to reject the change, at the top, click the drop-down menu for the Reject icon and select the second choice (Reject Change).
Preview the change and make sure it went through correctly.
Click the Next icon again and Track Changes will take you to the next suggestion.
Highlighting option: You may highlight several suggested changes and accept or reject them all at once. (Please use the drop-down menus for Accept and Reject.) Highlighting as recommended here will save you a lot of time.

NOTE: You may just hit the Accept or Reject icon, and Word will automatically move you to the next fix. But if you do this, you will not be able to preview the change if the next suggestion is too far down, so I do not recommend this option. Please use the drop-down menus for Accept and Reject in order to make sure the revisions insert or delete correctly.

ANOTHER OPTION: You may choose to leave in all the changes you wish to keep, but reject—one by one (using the drop-down menu as described above)—the suggestions that don't suit you. When you finish looking over the manuscript, click the Accept icon and select Accept All Changes.

For more in-depth information, here's a great online tutorial that refers to earlier Word versions too:

http://shaunakelly.com/word/sharing/howtrackchangesworks.html