As many of you probably remember, last summer I took an online class on Paul Beverley’s Word macros. May I say that Mr. Beverley is a genius in my opinion? I downloaded and learned so many keyboard shortcuts to make my editing more efficient. And isn’t efficiency something for which we should all strive in our work?

My list of macros resides on the bulletin board above my computer desk. I haven’t counted them, but there are probably about 30 or so. I have a few macros which are especially near and dear to me. Please allow me to gush about them like the geek that I am…

BibleGatewayFetch is extremely helpful in the work I do for my church. The church’s weekly programs always contain an outline of Scripture citations, each of which must be verified. Before I downloaded this macro, I had to remember which book, chapter, and verse were in each citation before pulling up the Bible Gateway website and manually typing them in so that the website would display them. With the BibleGatewayFetch macro, however, I only need to highlight the Bible citation in Word, then press Ctrl+Alt+B. Presto! The verse appears on my screen.

GoogleFetch is another internet macro that I love. If I highlight a word, name, or phrase in a Word document and press Ctrl+Alt+G, Google quickly runs a search on the highlighted word and shows the results. MerriamFetch is similar, except that it searches for a highlighted word in Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary and displays its definition. Just today, I used MerriamFetch to find out the definition of “succulent” (as a noun).

There are also macros that replace one word or item with another. NumberToText and TextToNumber are highly useful in the editing of research manuscripts. For example, some authors are not aware of the style rule that one must never begin a sentence with a numeral. If I see a sentence that begins, “2000 years ago…” I can place my cursor on “2000,” press Ctrl+Alt+N, and boom, the phrase changes to “Two thousand years ago…” In order to perform the reverse function, I can also place my cursor on “seven hundred,” press Ctrl+Alt+T, and get “700.”

If you use Word macros, what are a few of your favorites?