Quick Tip: Search and Highlight in Word

On Monday (okay, it was Tuesday--my Internet was down on Monday), I shared some common editing foibles, including the use of words such as "just," "usually" and "very." Here's a quick Word tip to help you see if you have a problem with overusing these types of words:

1. Click on Find. (In Word 2007, this is located at the very right of your Home tab).
2. Enter the word or phrase you're looking for. 
3. Click on "Reading Highlight" (at the bottom of the Find and Replace box) and then "Highlight All" from the drop-down box. Word will highlight all the incidences of the chosen word AND tell you how many times you've used it.
4. Now you can use the "Find Next" button to move to find and delete or replace the overused word.

This technique works well with finding adverbs too. Type LY in the Find box, and then go through your adverbs and decide which ones you can delete or replace.