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Next Networking Night: Thursday, December 19
Next Program Meeting: Thursday, January 21
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Holiday Potluck Party With SDW/EG
 Join us as we combine festive forces with the San Diego Writers/Editors Guild for a holiday party and networking night! Mingle and network with professionals in similar fields; make some new friends and connections.
Please RSVP by 12/17 so we can estimate beverages. Please bring a potluck dish and/or something to share. If you have authored a book and are willing to donate a copy to the door-prize drawing, please bring a copy in a holiday gift bag.
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Meeting Details
7:00-8:50 p.m., Thursday, December 19, 2013
San Diego Room
County Health Services Complex
3851 Rosecrans St.
San Diego 92110
Google Map
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Q&A Session: Word Processing Options
By Christine L. Robbins
It’s no surprise that Microsoft Word is the dominant word processing software used by SD/PEN members. Yet, as familiar as we are with Word, we don’t all know everything there is to know about it. With that in mind, SD/PEN members Barbara Hendrickson, Michael Burge, and Beth Bolwerk, along with computer specialist Anthony Barrett of Barrett Consulting Services Inc., were on hand at our November 21 program meeting to answer questions related to this popular software.
Sending Email From a Link Within a Word Document
You must be using Outlook or another email program like Mac Mail in order to be able to send an email directly from a link in a Word document. Outlook isn’t included with the Home & Student edition of Microsoft Office, which, by the way, shouldn’t be used for anything that generates income—fines can be as high as $250,000. You can use the Home & Business edition, however, and it’s less expensive than the Professional edition. Another option is an Office 365 subscription, which costs between $5 and $12 per month.
Using an Old Document as a Template for a New One
Barbara used a policy manual she had created as an example to show us the process of creating a new document patterned after an older one.
- Open the old document and immediately save it with a new file name before making any changes.
- Reveal formatting and vertical page position by right-clicking in the status bar.
- To change recurring information (such as the client's name) throughout the document, use the Find and Replace function (Ctrl + F). You can also use this to replace two spaces between sentences with one space by entering two spaces in the Find field and one space in the Replace field. Also in the Find box, the Special dropdown button allows you to find and/or replace special characters.
- To access Word 2010’s Help files, you can press F1, but it’s often quicker to search for your question in a search engine like Google. Be sure to include your version of Word in the query.
Deleting Paragraph Indents Made With Multiple Single Spaces
- One option is to go to the Find and Replace function and enter multiple spaces in the Find field and nothing (no spaces) in the Replace field
- You can also highlight a group of spaces and delete them.
Keeping Track of Changes When Multiple People Are Collaborating on a Document
Michael often works on documents that receive comments from three to five other people. He uses the Compare feature to compare his original with their edits.
Working on an iPad or iPhone
Apple’s Pages software used to be your only word processing option, but iPad and iPhone users now have access to Word via the Office 365 app.
Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts
Beth hates clicking. She’d rather save her fingers for eating bonbons and playing her harp. Here are a few of her favorite keyboard shortcuts (replace “Ctrl” with “Command” if you’re on a Mac).
- Undo last function = Ctrl + Z
- Toggle between all lower-case, capped first letter, and all caps = Shift + F3 when you use it with a highlighted word or group of words.
- Bold = Ctrl + B
- Italics = Ctrl + I
- Underline = Ctrl + U
- Em dash = Ctrl + Alt + - (minus sign from numerical keypad)
- En dash = Ctrl + - (minus sign from numerical keypad)
- Select whole document = Ctrl + A
- Close the document window you’re currently in, but leave Word open = Ctrl + W. This works in all Microsoft Office programs.
Editing Onscreen vs. on Paper
Everyone agreed that it’s a good idea to proofread a printed version before finalizing a document, because even experienced editors skim text they’ve been working with for a while.
- Wait at least a few hours, and preferably overnight, before doing a final review.
- Save paper by printing on the back of old documents.
Which Is More Important: The Complexity of a Password or the Frequency With Which It’s Changed?
Both are equally important. Anthony suggests changing passwords every three to six months, and being cautious about using public computers or public Wi-Fi.
Bonus: More Word-related Tips and Tricks
Look into WordTips, a free weekly e-newsletter that’s part of the Tips.Net family of informational websites and newsletters. There’s a version for Word 97-2003 (see http://word.tips.net) and one for Word 2007-2013 (see http://wordribbon.tips.net). WordTips also offers e-books, including Microsoft Word 2010 Beginner’s Guidebook, Word Find and Replace, and Word Styles and Templates.
Prize Drawings
It pays to attend meetings! Everyone got helpful information and tasty snacks, but Beth Bolwerk and Heidi Clevenger each took home a $25 Amazon gift card, and Maggi Payment Kirkbride won the annual grand prize, which was a Kindle Paperwhite this year.
New Board Members Elected
Welcome to newly elected board members Katie Barry, Patricia Harriman, Gwen Jorgensen, and Craig Leimkuehler, each of whom will serve for two years. On January 1, 2014, they will join Melanie Astaire Witt, who will continue her stellar service with a second two-year term on the Board.
Also returning for transitional assignments until their positions can be filled (or, in the case of Shirley and Linda Clukey, until March, when they move to Vancouver, Washington), are Shirley Clukey, Linda Clukey, and Beth Bolwerk. Many thanks to these three for service above and beyond the call of duty. Many thanks to retiring board member Katy Laundrie for her generous, diligent service as well.
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Reminder: Renew Your SD/PEN Membership
If you haven’t yet, click here to renew your membership for 2014
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New SD/PEN Members in 2013
We are pleased to welcome the following people who joined SD/PEN this year!
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Please visit the Members Only section at SDPEN.org for these members’ complete listings.
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It’s Easier Than You Think! Building Your Own WordPress Website
By Maggi Payment Kirkbride
You've probably seen the ads claiming a company can teach you to set up your website and blog in as little as 15 minutes. On November 2 at the Microsoft Store in Mission Valley, some of your SD/PEN colleagues did just that! Not only did we learn how to create our websites and blogs—and did so—we also learned how to make changes and additions without having to call someone who would inevitably have sent us a big fat invoice. And we learned about keywords and search engine optimization (SEO), widgets, and so much more—all in a few hours.
Amy Hall, a WordPress Virtual Assistant, explained WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org, managed and non-managed hosting, posts and pages, themes, and more of the new vocabulary and mystery of websites and blogging. Because Amy is also an SEO expert, she taught us many important SEO tips and tricks to follow when setting up our websites.
At the outset, Amy asked us to decide the purpose of our websites and blogs. Were they to showcase our brilliance, to share our expertise and inform, to get business, or some combination of those? Then she discussed the importance of distinguishing ourselves from our competition. Some of us said we would be powerful and professional, some said we would be chatty and friendly, and some of us opted for lots of visuals. Next, we identified the goals for our websites and blogs. Those goals could have been to make money with Google AdSense, to advertise our services, or to stay connected with past and potential clients.
We learned to use WordPress, which runs about 20 percent of the world's websites. It is free to set up a website and blog (as many as you want) on WordPress.com and it has plenty of tutorials and resources. We created our websites in virtually minutes. It really is that simple. We selected themes for our  websites and created our first blog posts for practice. Amy patiently answered our individual questions and explained the array of dashboard settings and tools.
Contact Amy Hall at (619) 770-7716 or amy@amyhall.biz or visit AmyHall.biz if you want to tap into her WordPress talents.
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Dear Members,
I thought this message would be my farewell to you, but it turns out that I'll be sticking around a bit longer.
As I look back over 2013, I'm gratified to see the ongoing success of SD/PEN. From a newly refined mission statement to the creation of board committees to further SD/PEN's progress, we've had a productive year. Some of what the Board has worked on is not visible to our members yet, such as the review of all documents produced by SD/PEN, development of a comprehensive SD/PEN Style Guide and accompanying changes to both digital and paper-based publications, plus several new policies soon to be posted to our website.
Some of the benefits we’ve worked on are more apparent, including four 2013 workshops and the bi-monthly networking nights begun in February of this year. The Board planned these events in response to member surveys and requests. We're also looking into the possibility of producing or procuring other kinds of continuing education, such as webinars.
We were also able to partner with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE), so that interested SD/PEN members can join NAIWE at a discounted rate and have access to their considerable job listings and training. We also continue to point out websites to our membership that feature freelance opportunities for editors and writers.
New members of the Board to be seated in January 2014 will no doubt have ideas for ways to continue to improve and grow SD/PEN, and will be setting new goals for the coming year. Those goals will be based upon the most recent member survey. If you have further ideas or needs, now is the time to speak up so your voice can be part of the new year's planning process. Feel free to contact me or any board member to share your ideas, or leave your comments in the suggestion box at SDPEN.com. Better yet, volunteer to help us create your vision!
Happiest of holidays to each of you,
Shirley
PS: A huge thank you to the wonderful volunteers listed below who were key to achieving the goals mentioned in my message:
Alignment Committee: Linnea Dayton, Kay Sweet
Meeting Location Committee: Melanie Astaire Witt, Katy Laundrie, Kay Sweet
Newsletter Committee: Melanie Astaire Witt, Beth Bolwerk
Style Guide Committee: Melanie Astaire Witt, Katy Laundrie
Telephone Survey Committee: Melanie Astaire Witt, Katy Laundrie, Kay Sweet
Website Review Committee: Beth Bolwerk, Melanie Astaire Witt, Linnea Dayton, Kay Sweet
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“I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.”
- Mark Twain
“Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.”
- Samuel Johnson
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
- Douglas Adams
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Call for Submissions!
We’re looking for input from our members. If you’ve come across a handy or entertaining website, newsletter, app or other resource, or read a useful book that you’d be willing to write a short review of for us, please let us know and we’ll include it in the newsletter.
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