Tips on Microsoft Office Archives

Make Microsoft Find Passives

Does your Microsoft Office grammar and spelling checker ever flag passive verbs in your writing? If not, do not assume your writing is free of passive verbs. Instead, assume that you do not have your grammar and spelling checker set to flag them. To test… continue reading

Silly Spam Story

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that email I was expecting was not arriving. I was waiting to receive email replies from a couple of specific clients, but, oddly, they did not appear. To add to the mystery, my husband Michael, who works at… continue reading

Email Tip to Avoid Embarrassment

I just received an excellent tip on how to avoid accidentally sending an email reply in Outlook. The tip is thanks to Darek, who attended Better Business Writing last week. Here is the tip: When you are writing an email reply, type some gibberish (nonsensical… continue reading

My Latest Mistake

Yesterday I discovered another mistake I had made, and I decided to turn it into a piece of advice for you. Isn’t that what life is all about–turning our mistakes into something positive? Here is the situation: Last week I completed a proposal for a… continue reading

Save Time and Avoid Typos

My company is Syntax Trianing–I mean Syntax Training. I teach business wirting–that is, business writing. The errors I have just made–Trianing and wirting— are ones I often make as I type. To avoid making errors, I use the Autocorrect tool in Microsoft Office. Whenever I… continue reading

Quick Tip on Hyphenation

This post should go under the category "Things I Should Have Known." It’s about hyphenation. Did you know that in Microsoft Word you can insert an optional hyphen? You are probably wondering why you would want to. Example: Imagine you are writing a two-column piece… continue reading

A graphic of a comma next to the title of the article text: "Commas with names & Greetings," and an example: "Good morning, Michael."

Using Commas With Names and Greetings

Let’s take a look at commas with names and salutations, as we’ve been receiving various questions on the topic from our readers: Are There Commas After Greetings? Question: Do I have to use a comma with a person’s name when I say “Hi” or “Hello”?… continue reading

New Rules of Email Etiquette

Yesterday I led a brown-bag lunch session, Email Intelligence, for a very intelligent group in Seattle. They came up with eight new rules of email etiquette to add to my standard list. Click here to download that list. The group offered these excellent suggestions: Create… continue reading

Public or Pubic? Spellcheck Can’t Tell!

Yesterday I got a friendly telephone call from a stranger: Collette Gillian of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Being a copywriter and a lover of the English language, Collette likes to see English written correctly. Collette phoned to inform us that a page on our… continue reading

One Space or Two?

How many spaces should be included after end punctuation such as a period (full stop), exclamation point, and question mark? One. It’s true. Believe me. Despite what your teachers taught and typewriters required in decades past, the number of spaces after end punctuation–and after a… continue reading