Two Questions About Italics

Unless your specific publisher or editor says otherwise, yes, use underlines instead of italics--it makes it much easier to copyedit and typeset.

Yes, you can do a search and replace in MSWord for italics--

1. Edit menu-->Replace
2. in the bottom of the window you'll see a pop-down menu that says Format
3. From the Format menu, chose the Font and Style you want to replace.

I'm doing this from memory, since you probably use MSWord for Windows.

Medievalist is right. You might need to click the More button in the Replace toolbox to see the Format option.

It's not hard to do, but is a little tricky the first time you do it. You might want to try it first on a dummy Word file.

Actually MS Word has a shortcut:

First, make sure both your Find and Replace entry fields are blank.

In the Find entry field, type Ctl-I. That is, hold down the Control key while you type the letter I. This tells Word to search for all text that is italicized. In fact, you'll see the text "Font: Italic" underneath the Find box.

In the Replace entry field, type Ctl-I twice, type Ctl-U once. This tells Word to remove the italics and add the underlining for whatever text it finds. You should see the text "Font: Not Italic, Underline" underneath the Replace box.

Click the Replace all button to do the work. As alleycat suggested, try this out on a test document first.

If you use Courier, underling is better as italics doesn't stand out. If you use TNR (which is more popular among younger agents), italics is better. If the agent specifies what she wants, that's the best of all.


Changing is no big deal. Use the find/replace function and select the formatting you want to replace with other formatting.

As long as your consistent use whichever you prefer. Both are widely accepted these days. But if someone you're submitting to has a stated preference, use that.