MS Word Utilities for Writers

Roger J Carlson · Apr 27, 2005

I have been given permission by Jenna, our kind and generous hostess, to post this on multiple boards. I hope you don't mind.

I've written several little programs in Microsoft Word to do some things that Word does not do:

Word Frequency Counter:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11152

This program counts all instances of each word in a document. This can be useful to determine if you are using some words too frequently. In addition, it also tracks the shortest distance (in words) between any two instances of a word. (For instance, "I said that he said" would return 3. This can help determine if you are using words in too close proximity.

Phrase Frequency Counter:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11380

This program is similar to the Word Frequency Counter, but it counts only those phrases you specify. If you have a tendancy to use cliches or over-worked phrases, this can help identify them.

Passive Word Highlighter:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11330

This program goes through an entire document and changes the color of passive, boring, or cliche words and phrases. For instance, it will replace every instance of "was" with "was" (formatted in red). You control which words it checks for and the color it assigns.

I originally posted these in the Writing Novels board, but I thought they might be useful to others as well. The links above connect to those discussions if you want to read more about them.

These programs are entirely free and you can download them from my website, here:

http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/WritingHelp/TechTips.html

I hope you find them useful. I would be glad for any comments or suggestions. I'd particularly like to know if you have any problems.

BTW, all of the programs work externally, that is they open a separate document file and work on that. I am currently working on a Master Suite of utilities that you can import into Word itself and use on your currently active document. I'll let you know when it's ready.

ScottAJohnson · Apr 27, 2005

Thanks for posting this!

MacAllister · May 3, 2005

Too cool, Roger! Thank you! I've been deep in the remodeling project, so haven't been here much for a few days--I should have said thanks, sooner.

Roger J Carlson · May 11, 2005

Update

We are constantly being told to get rid of as many adverbs as possible from our writing. I've added two new utilities that can help:

Adverb Eliminator
It works like this:

Make a copy of your file
Turn on Track Changes (MS Word of course)
Check every word to see if it ends in ly
Check word against an Exclude List
If not in Exclude List, mark word for deletion
When done, you can go back and scroll through the deletions and either accept or reject it.

Adverb Highlighter
For those who don't use (or are afraid of) Track Changes, I also wrote the which does the same thing but just highlights the adverbs instead.

You can find them here:
http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/WritingHelp/TechTips.html

MacAllister · May 11, 2005

I've been playing with these programs all morning--This is terrific, Roger. I'm going to sticky this thread.

Roger J Carlson · May 16, 2005

I've added one more utility: the Preposition Highlighter. This program checks the number of prepositions in a sentence and a paragraph and highlights those above a pre-defined threshold. I just bundled it into my standard package which gives the user the ability to choose threshold and color.

It can be useful for finding excessive prepositional phases.

It's on my website here:
http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/WritingHelp/TechTips.html

emeraldcite · Sep 27, 2005

i am also thoroughly impressed.

emeraldcite · Sep 27, 2005

i'd like to revise

bada$$

Xavier Kobel · Sep 27, 2005

Hey Roger, I have not downnloaded any of the utilities for WORD you have created. Fresh from a total system meltdown, I'm reluctant to start stacking up my bitty old hard drive and slowing my old pc to a grind again.

But I have seriously been doing some preliminary shopping for Novel editing software, to help aid the tediously slow task of editing the first draft of my novel.

I've noticed the WORD utilities you describe share many features that are mirrored in editing software on the market. The one's I've compared sell between $80 low end ,$150 mid range, and a whopping $350 high end. At least two of these offer free trial periods, which I plan to employ to see if they tackle sentence structure, active, passive, and tense issues.

If you effectively combine all the features of your seperate downloads into one complete book/writing editor, that does the same thing a human editing service offers, you've got a great start to an upstart software company. And you would have my vote for genius of the year!

I'll take a closer look at the downloads you offer.

But first I still have to find out how to convert 40 pages of chapter 3 back from an object stuck in my book, so I'm off to visit the tech support page again.

Take care
Jim
AKA: Xavier Kobel

madderblue · Mar 12, 2006

This is amazing, just what I've been wanting. Thank you Roger! Muwa :kiss:

!

Prosperity7 · Jul 7, 2006

Roger J Carlson said:
I've added one more utility: the Preposition Highlighter. This program checks the number of prepositions in a sentence and a paragraph and highlights those above a pre-defined threshold. I just bundled it into my standard package which gives the user the ability to choose threshold and color.

It can be useful for finding excessive prepositional phases.

It's on my website here:
http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/WritingHelp/TechTips.html

Your software is great. I just figured out how to save it to my computer. Thanks for you generosity.

GuatDad · Aug 7, 2006

will it work on my mac running Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac?

Fahim · Aug 8, 2006

GuatDad said:
will it work on my mac running Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac?

Roger's utilities employ Word macros to do their magic. I believe Office for Mac has the capability to run macros but I wouldn't be able to tell you if this would work for you under Mac or not without having tried it out first. The best thing to do would be to download the files and try them

Roger J Carlson · Aug 8, 2006

GuatDad said:
will it work on my mac running Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac?

I don't know if Word for Mac has the same macro language (Visual Basic for Applications - VBA). If so, the main macros that do the job would work. However, there is also supporting code that allows you to choose which file you want to process. This code is specific to Windows (technically, it uses the Windows API) and will not run on a Mac.

So basically, the delivery method is Windows specific. I'm pretty sure the main macros could be modified to work with a Mac (assuming the macro language is compatible), but you would have to import the macro into each document (or your Normal.dot) template and run them individually.

So the short answer is no, they won't work as is on a Mac. Sorry.

Gary · Sep 29, 2006

Just a warning....when I downloaded the adverb highlighter, it affected my Word program so I wasn't able to launch any word documents from my desktop. I had to first open Word, then go to the file in My Computer to launch the file.

I had to remove and reinstall Word to resolve the problem.

Roger J Carlson · Sep 29, 2006

Hmmm. That's strange. Can you be more specific?

You said when you downloaded it, it affected you Word installation. Did you mean that literally or did you mean when you ran it, it affected Word?

When you say you couldn't launch documents from the desktop, do you mean they were literally on the desktop? Or do you mean you couldn't double-click the file name and open the document in Word?

What version of Word are you using?

Gary · Sep 29, 2006

Roger J Carlson said:
Hmmm. That's strange. Can you be more specific?

You said when you downloaded it, it affected you Word installation. Did you mean that literally or did you mean when you ran it, it affected Word?

When you say you couldn't launch documents from the desktop, do you mean they were literally on the desktop? Or do you mean you couldn't double-click the file name and open the document in Word?

What version of Word are you using?

It affected how Word responded when I tried to open files from the desktop only. It made no difference if the file was alone on the desktop or inside a folder. It would try to open the file and then lock up. If I tried to wait it out, it opened a read-only version of the document, or there was an error message, which I don't recall. Since I usually work with several documents parked on the desktop, it was a scary situation.

If the file was on the desktop and I tried to open from the recently opened files listed inside the Word menu, it failed also, so it must somehow related to the desktop. If I created a new document and did not place it on the desktop, it worked fine.

After I removed and reinstalled Word, everything functions normally.

I'm using Word 2003, with all updates installed.

Jamesaritchie · Sep 29, 2006

Gary said:
It affected how Word responded when I tried to open files from the desktop only. It made no difference if the file was alone on the desktop or inside a folder. It would try to open the file and then lock up. If I tried to wait it out, it opened a read-only version of the document, or there was an error message, which I don't recall. Since I usually work with several documents parked on the desktop, it was a scary situation.

If the file was on the desktop and I tried to open from the recently opened files listed inside the Word menu, it failed also, so it must somehow related to the desktop. If I created a new document and did not place it on the desktop, it worked fine.

After I removed and reinstalled Word, everything functions normally.

I'm using Word 2003, with all updates installed.

Parking documents, or anything else, on your desktop, is not a good idea. It can cause all sorts of problems, not to memtion what it does to memory.

There's a sound reason why Word file storage comes defaulted to My Documents, rather than to the desktop.

Gary · Sep 30, 2006

Jamesaritchie said:
Parking documents, or anything else, on your desktop, is not a good idea. It can cause all sorts of problems, not to memtion what it does to memory.

There's a sound reason why Word file storage comes defaulted to My Documents, rather than to the desktop.

Like everyone else, I don't always do things the best way and I've never had a problem with parking files on the desktop, going all the way back to Windows 3.1. If I had to search My Documents every time I wanted to access a file, I'd be screaming in no time.

Since I work with TurboCAD, I bought enough memory to choke a horse, so that's not a problem.

Roger, I hope I didn't come across as complaining, because I'd never complain about free help and good intentions. I was only giving a heads-up to a problem I experienced. I can't even be 100% sure it was your program that caused it. I only know it happened after I installed it and went away after I removed it...but it might have been a coincidence.

Julie Worth · Sep 30, 2006

Jamesaritchie said:
Parking documents, or anything else, on your desktop, is not a good idea. It can cause all sorts of problems, not to memtion what it does to memory.

There's a sound reason why Word file storage comes defaulted to My Documents, rather than to the desktop.

Apart from clutter, the problem is that all those icons can take a while to refresh. But you can increase the iconcache (putting it in RAM where your computer doesn't have to search the hard disk for it), thereby increasing the refresh speed.

Added: Here's a link for Win98, though I think it's the same for XP (in XP, the cache value may already be there, but you should increase the size to 2000).

Roger J Carlson · Sep 30, 2006

Gary said:
Roger, I hope I didn't come across as complaining, because I'd never complain about free help and good intentions. I was only giving a heads-up to a problem I experienced. I can't even be 100% sure it was your program that caused it. I only know it happened after I installed it and went away after I removed it...but it might have been a coincidence.

Gary,

I'm sorry that this happened to your system and I'm glad you brought it to my attention. However, I can't see how it could have been my programs. They aren't programs in a stand-alone sense. They're not installed. They're just Word document with macros in them.

However, it's possible that there's some version incompatibilty as they were written in Word 2000. However, I've run them in Word 2003 with no problems. Very strange.

Finni · Jan 14, 2008

Has anyone recently used these programs? Do they work well with Windows Office for Professionals 2007? I just bought this computer and don't want my system doing weird things.

Fahim · Jan 14, 2008

I believe Roger's macros do not work with Word 2007 but he plans to upgrade them soon. There is another set of macros that I've written which do work with Word 2007. I believe there's another sticky thread (either under the main Tech Help forum or the FAQ sub forum) about that macro, if you want to try that

MS Word Utilities for Writers

Roger J Carlson

Moderator In Name Only

ScottAJohnson

MacAllister

'Twas but a dream of thee

Roger J Carlson

Moderator In Name Only

MacAllister

'Twas but a dream of thee

Roger J Carlson

Moderator In Name Only

emeraldcite

Art is Resistance

emeraldcite

Art is Resistance

Xavier Kobel

madderblue

Beagle Lips.

Prosperity7

GuatDad

Fahim

Mad coder, lazy writer

Roger J Carlson

Moderator In Name Only

Gary

Roger J Carlson

Moderator In Name Only

Gary

Jamesaritchie

Gary

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?

Roger J Carlson

Moderator In Name Only

Finni

discipula vitae

Fahim

Mad coder, lazy writer