Business Writing

Don't Be Fooled by Microsoft's Non-Errors

In Microsoft Office the grammar and spelling checker often flags non-errors. It flags certain constructions that have "fooled" the software into detecting a possible error. 

My grammar and spelling checker flagged a potential error in each item below. But don't be fooled! Each item is correct.   

1. I am wondering who they are and how to reach them.
   Microsoft suggests changing who to whom, but the sentence requires the subject pronoun who.
2. Thank you for letting Michael know about the situation.
   Microsoft suggests changing know to knows, which is obviously incorrect.
3. This magazine may give you ideas for decorating the kitchen.
   Microsoft suggests replacing you with your--wrong!
4. Suzan says it is difficult to write about herself.
   Microsoft suggests replacing herself with her, which changes the meaning.
5. Treasurer’s Report (as a heading)
   Microsoft suggests replacing Treasurer's with "Treasurer is."
6. Kate, thank you for your help.
   Microsoft flags this as a fragment, but it is a perfectly fine sentence.
7. Please look over your bid to see if there is anything you can do to lower the price.
   Microsoft suggests a comma after anything--wrong!
8. Thanks, Bob!
   Microsoft suggests deleting the comma, but the comma is required in direct address.
9. She earned a master’s degree in communication from the University of Notre Dame.
   Microsoft wants to capitalize of--wrong!
10. The session will run from 1 to 5 p.m.
    Microsoft wants to change 1 to one--wrong!
11. We need to know our guest's preferred dinnertime.
    Microsoft suggests "guest has" rather than the possessive form guest's.
12. I have taught thousands of professionals at all organizational levels.
    Microsoft suggests professional's and professionals'--both are wrong.

In many of the examples, you can tell why the software was fooled. For instance, "Michael know" would be wrong in most sentences, but not in the construction "Thank you for letting Michael know." The number 1 is often spelled out, but not with a.m. or p.m. Guest's can mean "guest has," but not in Item 11.  

Before you accept a change your grammar and spelling checker suggests, be sure you understand it. In Microsoft Office, click "Explain" when your software offers that option, and see if the explanation makes sense. If you aren't sure whether your sentence is correct, try revising it in a way that makes sense to you.

Does your grammar and spelling checker find other non-errors? Please share them here.

Lynn
Syntax Training

A Writing Tip From Ly7nn

Today I received a brief, thoughtful message from a successful colleague who works in another field. Here is the email:

Thanks, Ly7nn. Let me know if you have any questions concerning the report.

What went wrong? How could my friend send me a message with my name mangled by a number? Why didn't his grammar and spelling checker catch the error and stop the message from being sent?

The likely problem is that his Microsoft grammar and spelling checker is set to "Ignore words that contain numbers." That is one of the options a user can check. But checking it results in embarrassing mistakes like the one my friend made.

Be sure you have not inadvertently checked "Ignore words that contain numbers" and "Ignore words in UPPERCASE" in your Microsoft Office grammar and spelling checker. If you have checked them, your grammar and spelling checker will skip such words--and any errors in them!

Microsoft Office 2010, 2007, and 2003 all have a different way of getting you to the page to change these settings. Begin in a Word document. Then:

In 2010, go to File, then Options, then Proofing.

In 2007, go to Office Button (upper left corner of your screen in Word), then Word Options, then Proofing.

In 2003, go to Tools, then Options, then Spelling and Grammar.

Once you get to the appropriate screen, uncheck "Ignore words that contain numbers" and "Ignore words in UPPERCASE" if they are checked.

Be sure you are using Microsoft Word as your Outlook editor to apply these changes to your email.

I hope you enjoyed this tip. If you would like to add to it or add another tip, please do. 

Ly7nn
Syntax Training 

My Answers Are in Blue

Today I received an email in which a business writing class participant answered the prework questions for an upcoming writing class. She wrote at the top of her email, "My answers are in blue."

As often happens with such messages, her answers were in black--not blue--so they did not stand out among the questions, as she had intended. Her entire email was in black.

Sometimes people tell me their answers are in red or green. But no, their answers are in black on my computer screen.

I am not sure what is happening to block people's efforts to send their inline replies in color. Perhaps they are sending plain text messages when they think they are sending emails in rich text or HTML. Could it be that they click Send on a rich text or HTML message, but the email goes out as plain text?

I am certain the problem is not the way I receive email, since my messages from many people do include answers in various colors.

Of course, people can send test messages to themselves to confirm the color of their fonts. What else can they do?

Can you shed light on this font color problem? If you have ideas or explanations, please share them.

Lynn
Syntax Training

 

 

 

A Rarely Recognized Cause of Inefficient Writing

Working with over a hundred people on their business writing over the past seven days, I recognized once again that people's writing can be slowed down and weakened by something that has nothing to do with words.

That something is lack of knowledge of Microsoft Word features.

When people space manually to indent a list, when they delete a sentence they just typed by backspacing space by space, when they insert numbers one by one before the steps in a procedure, they are slowing down their thinking process and creating a document that is difficult to edit and easy to make errors in.

If you want to write quickly and efficiently in Microsoft Word--or if you want your team to--be sure you know how to:

1. Change the size of margins in a document without tabbing or spacing.
2. Vary the font size, color, and type.
3. Number items automatically.
4. Create bullet points without typing a dash (--) before each one.
5. Vary the amount of white space between lines of text automatically.
6. Find and replace words and strings of text (for example, to change global to worldwide).
7. Insert frequently used words and phrases automatically to avoid having to type them and think about how to spell them. Proper names like Philippines should not be slowing you down.
8. Create simple tables.
9. Insert special characters such as copyright symbols.
10. Check for errors in spelling, grammar, and style. 
11. Make the type look bigger on the screen for easy proofreading, without changing the font size.
12. Undo a change or series of changes (and then undo the undoing if necessary).

Do you and your team know how to do these things? If not, you can attend a class, get advice from your information technology (IT) department, or complete online tutorials. The time you invest in your software skills will pay off instantly in more efficient writing.

These ideas come from my guide Help Employees Write Better: A Guide for Managers, Trainers, and Others Who Care About Business Writing. If you would like 59 more solutions to employee writing problems, consider buying the guide for your company.

Lynn
Syntax Training

A Bright Tip on PowerPoint

I just finished reading Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint: How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas, an excellent book by Christopher Witt for those who write and deliver speeches.

As with so many books that take a strong stance, the author backtracks in the chapter "When You Must Use PowerPoint." He admits that there are times and places for the ubiquitous Microsoft presentation software many of us have come to love--and hate.

In the section "Making the Best Use of PowerPoint" Witt shares a tip I should have known as someone who has used PowerPoint beneficially in business writing classes for years. He writes:

"In PowerPoint, the screen will go black when you press the B key, white when you press the W key."

I use the B key often for a black screen. But W for a white screen? This new information excites me. Here's why:

A black screen darkens the front of the room, which is often already dim to avoid washing out the slides. I love knowing how to produce a white screen, which will keep the front area, where I am presenting, bright.

Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint has much valuable guidance for corporate presenters, and I will share more later. (Thanks to Marcia Yudkin for introducing me to the book.) For now, I just wanted to brighten your day with the W key.

Do you know PowerPoint secrets I ought to know? Please whisper them here.

Lynn
Clarity, Conciseness, Zing, and More

 

Hot Tip on a Microsoft Office Feature

In a Writing Tune-Up I led last week, a manager exclaimed that a tip I had just provided was worth the price of the entire workshop.

Here is the tip, and you don't have to pay me for it:

If Microsoft Office is automatically correcting something for you--and you don't want it corrected--you can stop the autocorrect feature for that correction.

Example: The manager types HSA, the abbreviation for "Health Savings Account." Microsoft automatically corrects HSA to the word HAS. That auto-correction drives the manager and her team crazy. They continually undo the Microsoft correction, and sometimes their corrections get undone, although they don't know how this is happening. They are frustrated about wasting valuable work time undoing Microsoft's correction. 

Update on March 4: Please see the fourth comment below,  the one from Marc. He shares a much faster, more efficient way of eliminating a term like "hsa" from AutoCorrect.

Here is how to eliminate a term from the AutoCorrect feature:

In Word 2003, click Tools, then AutoCorrect Options.
In Word 2007, click Office Button, then Word Options, then Proofing Tools, then AutoCorrect Options. (If you know a faster way, please share it.)

Then, for both Word 2003 and 2007, under the AutoCorrect tab, you will see a box with two columns filled with entries. The left column is labeled "Replace"; the right column is labeled "With."

In the "Replace" column, find the entry you do not want corrected, for example, hsa, and click on it to highlight it. Then click Delete. That entry will be deleted and will never waste your time again!

Use the same approach (in the one-line box without entries) if you want to add entries to be automatically corrected. For example, I have added pubic to the "Replace" column, with public in the "With" column. Just click Add to confirm your entry.

Do you have any time-saving tips for writers who use Microsoft Office? Please share them here or provide a link to your tips.

Lynn
Syntax Training

A Horror Story in Microsoft Office

In yesterday's Better Business Writing class in Everett, Washington, a woman told a horror story of a "trick" gone wrong in Microsoft Office.

As I remember the story, she had just begun to work on a contract at a large company. When she composed a document on the computer she had been given, she realized that every time she typed management, it automatically changed to idiots. So if she typed, "This program requires approval by management," her sentence would read "This program requires approval by idiots."

Yikes! Sending out that message would have been the end of her contract.

She never told how she got out of that fix--that's not the important part of the story. What is important is that she was not familiar with the Autocorrect feature in Microsoft Office, so when she saw idiots, she thought her computer had been possessed by demons. It scared her out of her cubicle.

It scares me to think that people might not be using Autocorrect. It's a feature that can save you time and embarrassment by replacing the words you typed with the ones you meant. For example, it corrects me when I type manger for manager and pubic for public--embarrassing things I used to do often.

And then there's Autotext. It saves me time because instead of having to type Lynn Gaertner-Johnston (my long name filled with letter combinations that lead to typos), I just type Lynn and my whole name appears. Instead of having to type Weyerhaeuser, one of my clients whose name is difficult to spell, I just type Weye and the whole name appears, spelled correctly.

In yesterday's business writing class, a woman decided she is going to have Autotext complete her long email address for her, and she easily created an Autocorrect entry for tahnks, her fingers' version of thanks. A man decided he would stop typing the 17-letter name of his company--and have Autotext do it for him.

Join them! If you are now doing the tasks above manually, think of the time you can save! Let's rewrite the horror story above. Let's change that wording from time idiots to time management.

Lynn
Meet me in San Diego at ASTD Expo June 2-4. 

Microsoft Tips on Grammar, Punctuation, Etc.

People in business writing seminars often ask me this excellent question:

How can I know whether the changes suggested by my Microsoft grammar and spelling checker are correct?

You can't, not without understanding the rules of grammar, punctuation, usage, and sentence structure. But one way to find out more is to turn on your "Office Assistant," a Microsoft Help feature. Here is how:

From the Help menu, click Show the Office Assistant.

In my version, Office 2003, the Assistant appears as an animated paperclip, robot, genie, dog, or one of four other entities.

To choose a different Assistant, click the Assistant, then Options. Choose Gallery, and then scroll through the Assistants until you find one you like. Click OK.

When you use your grammar and spelling checker, your Assistant will provide explanations. For example, in a guide I am working on, I wrote:

Will you write under your own name, or will your supervisor's name be on the pieces you write?

The Assistant gave me excellent advice on sentence structure, along with three examples. Although none of the examples was just like my sentence, one was close enough that I understood how I might revise my sentence, like this:

Will you write under your own name or your supervisor's name?

If an explanation does not appear, click Explain.

The explanations are helpful when Microsoft's suggestions are general, such as "Passive Voice (consider revising)" and "Verb Use (consider revising)." Sometimes explanations may not seem to apply to your sentence, for example, those on verb use. But the fact that Microsoft has flagged your sentence should prompt you to consider simplifying it.

As someone who teaches business writing, I know a lot about sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and the rules of writing. Yet I still find the grammar and spelling checker and the Assistant's guidance helpful, especially for finding passive voice verbs. Although a suggested change may not always fit my situation, the explanation is correct, just not applicable. That is why I suggest reading the explanations as an easy way to learn more about writing rules. 

If you are using Office 2007, please comment on any new features in the grammar and spelling checker and the Office Assistant. I will appreciate the information, and I am sure others will too.

Lynn    

[Norton AntiSpam] Help!

One of the keys to being an efficient business writer is having tools that work for you. I need help with one of my tools, and I am asking for your advice.

Here is the problem: When I get email from clients and others, my Norton anti-virus program often puts this phrase in brackets in front of the subject line: Norton AntiSpam. When I reply, my response is preceded by that useless notice, so my reply subject looks like this:

RE: [Norton AntiSpam] Writing Assessment

My goal is to communicate--not to advertise Norton, signal to readers that their message looked like spam, or make my own message seem less than professional. So to eliminate [Norton AntiSpam], I delete it from each reply. This step wastes my time.

This Norton thing can also lead to my looking foolish. Using my grammar and spelling checker, I once accidentally corrected it to read [Norton Antis Pam]. I don't know whether my reader noticed that flawed subject, but I know how I felt when I saw it in my Sent Items.

If that is not enough, all messages that begin [Norton AntiSpam] get alphabetized by the bracket--[--not by the actual subject! This inefficiency slows me down even more.

Can you help me please with tips or guidance? If you know a good way to banish these pointless messages, please share it. Or if you have a suggestion on how to seamlessly delete them from all my replies, that would be lovely. Please comment.

Lynn

Microsoft Turns Mangers Into Managers

Reading an e-newsletter a minute ago, I came across an error I see often. Can you find it in the sentence below?

The New Hampshire-based organization surveyed 117 senior executives and mangers around the globe for the survey, whose results were distributed April 26.

Yes. It's those mangers again. And we can't blame Microsoft Office. After all, manger is a perfect word, especially in sentiments expressed in Christmas cards.

The writer obviously intended the word manager. But this is a mistake that did not have to happen. It did not even need to be caught through proofreading. It could have been eliminated from the start.

How? Easily. Unless you write about mangers in your business, use your Microsoft AutoCorrect feature to automatically change manger to manager anytime you type it. It takes just a few seconds, like this:

1. Click Tools.
2. Click AutoCorrect Options.
3. In the Replace box, type manger.
4. In the With box, type manager.
5. Click Add.
6. Click OK.

I have written several times about how I now have Microsoft automatically change pubic to public. The result? I no longer offer any pubic seminars.   

So no more excuses about silly typographical errors! Get rid of that doe snot (does not)!  Away with those mangers!

The result? Your readers will focus on your message--not your mangers.

Lynn