When it comes to commands on Word, some prefer to hit keys on their keyboard, such as Ctrl + S to save a document. Others prefer to move the mouse pointer to an icon on their toolbar and click.

I am one of the latter, but I am becoming one of the former.

Using keyboard shortcuts undoubtedly saves time and is more efficient, and what editor does not want to be more efficient in their work? I have gotten into the habit of pressing Ctrl + S when I want to save a document and Ctrl + N when I want to start a new document, for example. Standard built-in Word commands are also incredibly helpful for placing text in bold, italic, and underline, and especially for copying (or cutting) and pasting. (I won’t bore you by listing all of keyboard shortcuts for those actions. Besides, you probably know them all.)

The habit I am trying to break involves using my mouse to navigate the pointer to the command icon and then clicking on the left button on the mouse. This is a habit worth breaking because it uses more time and is hard on the wrist. I have heard of people developing wrist pain from using a mouse over time. I am in no way saying that a mouse should never be used; it is a very necessary tool. (Unless you are using the touchpad on your laptop and if you are, I say, “Better you than me.”)

One of the many reasons why I took the EFA’s class in macros last year is so that I could learn keyboard shortcut commands for different actions in Word. These keyboard shortcuts have proven to be wonderfully useful. For example, I can change the words “two hundred” to the numeral “200” simply by placing the cursor anywhere before “two hundred” and pressing Ctrl + Alt + T. I can also place the article “the” before a word by placing the cursor in the word and pressing Ctrl + Alt + A. Can you imagine how much I would have to move the mouse around in order to perform these actions?

Are you a mouse person or a keyboard person? Why?

I put away my flip phone and obtained my very first smartphone, a refurbished iPhone 4, in March 2015. I was a latecomer to the party, as the vast majority of people I knew had smartphones by then. I instantly fell in love, and the more features I discovered, the more I adored my phone.

Fast forward to today. I am on my third smartphone, an iPhone 13 mini, and I cannot imagine not having it. I cannot imagine not being able to text, for example. People do not speak on the phone anymore; they text. (That is not entirely true. I voice call my mother much more than I text her, but that makes her more comfortable.) I am addicted to my email and love having it at my fingertips. And I am spoiled enough to loathe the thought of turning on the TV and waiting for the weather forecast rather than just asking Siri, “What is the temperature in Frederick, Maryland?”

I also love being able to take my music MP3s wherever I go (though I wish our cars had Bluetooth so that my phone could pair with their speakers and I could listen to my tunes while I drive) and I adore being able to look at YouTube videos while stuck in a long checkout line at the supermarket.

However, all good things have a down side.

I have mild cerebral palsy (CP) and, due to my age, cannot see my phone screen well without my reading glasses. This means that filling out forms on my phone can be problematic. I realized this back in 2021 when I was trying to register for my second primary COVID-19 vaccination. After I scanned the QR code with which I had been provided, the form came up in tiny letters. Whenever the virtual keyboard appeared, I had to struggle to see each letter before pressing it. The CP makes it nearly impossible to text quickly with both of my thumbs; I must do the hunt-and-peck with my forefinger. (I feel the need to say that this is not the way I type on a regular computer keyboard. I can type at high speed on one of those.)

Still, I cherish my phone.

What kinds of things do you regularly do on your smartphone?

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?

Sometimes, when I recall how quickly technology evolves, I feel old.

I am old enough to remember storing my files on 3 ½ -inch disks. I had to buy one in high school for my typing class. (Yes, I was of the first generation that learned to type on a computer instead of a typewriter.) The computers we used were IBM PS2s and the year that I used them, they were new to the school. This was 1989, so we were considered ahead of many other school districts in Maryland.

The following semester, I took a class called Computer Applications, where we worked on Apple IIe machines. Unfortunately, these dinosaurs did not work with the 3 ½- inch disk; instead, they worked with the ancient 5 ¼-inch floppy disks (the kind that, I assume, gave rise to the term “floppy”) and I had to purchase one. I only vaguely remember the primitive word processing program that we were taught to use.

I learned WordPerfect in high school when I was the copy editor of the school newspaper. I loved it. At that time, Windows was in its infancy and Microsoft Word had not yet come out, so WordPerfect was considered the best of the best (at least by me).

Imagine my shock, then, when I arrived as a freshman at my small liberal arts college and found that the computers in its lab did not have WordPerfect, but WordStar. WordStar was clunky and not user-friendly. I hated it and so did the other students. I believe that it was the following year when the college installed WordPerfect on its lab computers—probably by popular request.

It was around the time I graduated college that I began to experiment with the Microsoft Windows products. I basically taught myself MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint at first and took classes and read books later in life to constantly update and refine my skills with them. Nowadays, I am using the standalone version of MS Office 2019. I look back at WordPerfect and the other word processing programs of the past and wonder how I ever managed to write papers on them.

What are some of your computer-related memories?

A few weeks ago, I stated that editors should be readers. Readers, by nature, love libraries.

When my husband and I lived in the Brooklyn area of Baltimore City, we were lucky enough to live within walking distance of a small branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. On Saturday mornings, I would often venture there to check out a Patricia Cornwell (Kay Scarpetta) or Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum) novel to read during my light rail train commute. I would also read in the lunch room at work while I ate (yes, I know how rude this sounds, but one must understand that many of my coworkers often spoke with each other in a language that I did not comprehend, so it was more entertaining to follow a murder mystery than to try to decipher said language).

In 2010, we moved to Frederick and going to the library suddenly presented a problem. Of all the libraries in the Frederick County, Maryland system, there are two that are a reasonable distance from our home. One of them is right in the downtown area, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Its two floors are packed with all kinds of books and resources and computers. Oh, how I wish I could visit it regularly. Why can’t I? One must park in a garage to get to it. Parking garages are not my friends. I can never reach the kiosk to get my ticket and must open the car door, making myself look inept. If I manage to get the car close enough to the kiosk, I inevitably bang my driver’s side rear view mirror against the kiosk, giving the mirror a permanent streak of yellow paint. Although the library will validate two hours of parking, it just is not worth the stress that it causes me.

About five or six years ago, a new library opened in the nearby town of Walkersville. I very much wanted to go, so I Google mapped directions to the library and set out. Would you believe that I could not find it? I tried more than once, to no avail. Perhaps I should try again using my GPS this time, although I tend to not trust GPS.

I will, by hook or by crook, start regularly visiting a library again.

As some of you may already know, I used to work in scientific laboratories—specifically, those having to do with biochemistry and molecular biology. I no longer do lab work, mainly because of my mild disabilities which rendered me unable to manipulate some of the intricate devices used in the field. However, I never lost my fascination with and respect for science. We can all thank science for the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic emergency was recently declared over.

One thing that anyone who has ever worked in a scientific lab will tell you is that it is very important to keep a neat, detailed laboratory notebook. I learned this in my undergraduate biology and chemistry classes and it has stuck with me ever since. A lab worker who comes in your place after you have left should be able to look at your lab notebook and replicate your work (not necessarily your results, but what you did for the experiment).

I loved lab notebooks because in them, I got to write. And is writing not my favorite thing to do? I got to write stepwise procedures and describe results. Oftentimes, I also got to draw the results. I love to draw. (I preferred organic chemistry class to general chemistry because in organic, I got to draw compounds and molecules.) I can think of at least one class I took as an undergraduate where my lab notebook brought up my final grade.

However, I also hated lab notebooks because in some situations, I had to be so detailed that it drove me crazy. When I took a class which simulated work in the biochemical industry, there was a horrible amount of detail involved in the keeping of a lab notebook. There was the issue of traceability, where I had to document the brand name, lot number, model number, and expiration date (if given) of every single compound, reagent, or instrument I used. If I made any kind of mistake, I had to put a single line through the error and write the correction next to it along with my initials and the date. Finally, at the end of every lab period, another student would have to sign every page of my lab notebook for that day. Whew!

If you work or have ever worked in a scientific laboratory, what are your thoughts on lab notebooks?

Last week, I stated that editors should be readers.

This week, I am saying that editors should also be writers.

Editors help authors write, so an editor should know the ins and outs about writing. What better way to gain knowledge about writing than to write?

An editor does not have to write the great American novel in order to be a writer—although I have known of some editors who are also novelists. (If you have the creative juices in you, I say go for it, although you may need the assistance of a developmental editor or copyeditor down the road.)

The easiest way to practice writing, however, is to journal. For this endeavor, you only need a pen or pencil and a simple notebook. In a journal, you can write about anything and everything without people reading what you have written (just be sure to tell the people with whom you live that your journal is off limits to them).

Journaling, for me, is extremely cleansing, for it is when I let my emotions rush off my heart and onto the lined page. I tend to journal about my worries and fears. My counselor taught me to do this and I soon found it to be very therapeutic. If I were to let you read my journal, you would probably think that my life is very messed up. It’s not. My worries and fears are on the pages of my journal because that is where they belong, not in my mind or body causing me distress.

I do not give myself a required amount of time to journal, but when I have finished writing, I always go back and read what I have written. Doing this is like a balm to my frayed nerves.

Do you journal? What do you think of the practice?

An editor should be a reader. An editor who does not like to read is like a dentist who hates teeth.

It dawned on me recently that I don’t often write about what I read, and maybe some of you are curious about what books I’ve been reading (or if I read at all). I read, and I like novels. My favorite kind of novel right now is a mystery. In this post, I am going to write about one of my favorite mystery series: Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books.

Stephanie Plum may be my favorite principal character in mysteries. She is a thirtysomething former department store buyer who, having been laid off, becomes a bounty hunter for her cousin’s bail bonds outfit in order to support herself. The books which feature her are all written in the first person from her point of view. She is physically attractive and tough as nails, but has a sensitive side as well, as evidenced by her interactions with Joe Morelli, her off-again-on-again boyfriend, and his dog Bob, who eats everything.

Stephanie spends much of her time chasing criminals who didn’t show up for their court date. Evanovich makes these criminals either hilarious or frightening. The hilarious ones make me laugh inside and the frightening ones give me goosebumps. The character of Lula, Stephanie’s best friend, is riotous; I often picture her as looking and speaking exactly like Queen Latifah. I also picture Stephanie as Sandra Bullock and Connie, her cousin’s secretary, as Rhea Perlman. I always “cast” novels inside my head.

Evanovich has come out with 29 books in the Stephanie Plum series and is gracious enough to give us one more each year. I tend to get excited when the most recent one comes out. When one of my dear friends got me into the series back in 2006, I did not start with book number one; I actually started with book number 11. That’s one of the beautiful things about the series—it is not necessary to read the books in any kind of order. The last one I read was Game On, which is number 28 and which contains a nice mixture of old and new characters.

What is your favorite kind of book to read for pleasure? A novel? A biography? Anything else?

I believe I said a few months ago that I had registered for EFACON, which will be my first professional conference as an editor, and that this even will be held in Alexandria, Virginia (near Washington, DC). I believe that I also said I was going to stay with my mother each night and take the Metro subway to Alexandria every day of the conference.

The plans have changed.

I am now going to stay at the hotel where the conference will be held. I booked a room back in March.

“But Suzelle, you are semi-local to Alexandria. You are only two hours away. Why are you staying at the hotel?” you ask.

There is more than one reason.

First, I do not want to be limited in my networking. If I meet another editor whose work I really admire and whom I wish to talk with for a good long time, I do not want to have to tell them, “Oh, it’s ten o’clock. I need to leave to catch the Metro.” Who am I—Cinderella?

Second, speaking of the Metro, I do not want to ride it back to my mother’s area at night. That is way too dangerous for a woman traveling by herself. I hear about Metro incidents almost every day on the DC local news.

Third, I do not want to have to duck out of evening events so I can catch the Metro. I will be very resentful if I must.

Fourth—and this is embarrassing—I have never been to Alexandria and I want the total experience of being there. I want to go out to dinner with colleagues and explore the waterfront and other attractions with them in our free time. The reason this reason is embarrassing is that I was born and raised in the DC area and have never visited Alexandria. I have heard there is nothing like being a tourist in your native area, though, so I’m really looking forward to seeing this city. Besides, I have heard that Alexandria is a lot like Annapolis, Maryland—my “happy place,” along with Wildwood, New Jersey.

Have you ever played tourist in your native area? If so, where did you go and what was it like for you?

I consider myself an introvert. Even making telephone calls to a restaurant to ask if they are taking reservations for Mother’s Day makes me anxious. I have an awesome circle of friends, but friendships do not come easily to me.

My preferred mode of communication with people is email, with texting being a close second. I do not like to talk on the phone unless it is with a close friend or relative. Some people may say email is “the coward’s preferred method of communication,” and perhaps they are right to a certain degree. When I email or text someone, I cannot see their face. When I talk to someone face-to-face, I very often cannot look directly at their face. It is way too anxiety-provoking.

Despite all of what I just said, I like to welcome new members when they join the EFA (Editorial Freelancers Association). I get their names from the “What’s New at the EFA?” bulletin, which comes in my email and indicates in which city and state each new member lives.

I focus specifically on members who live either in Maryland or in the greater Washington, DC area, which are the areas closest to me (I live in a Maryland city that is a bedroom community of the greater DC area.) I look at each new member’s EFA profile and if it includes the member’s email address, I send them an email which reads something like this:

“Dear Ms. X,

My name is Suzelle Fiedler and I have been an EFA member for four years. I saw that you recently joined the EFA and that you live [in Maryland/in the greater DC area]. Welcome to the EFA!

I saw that you edit [person’s niche or niches]. I edit scientific research manuscripts, focusing on biochemistry (I have an MS in Biochemistry).

I hope you grow to love the EFA as much as I do.

Have a great day!

Best regards,

Suzelle Fiedler

Am I trying to stalk new members? Absolutely not! What I’m doing is called networking. If a member does not respond, I simply move on. If they do respond, often this leads to a friendly colleague relationship.

One final important thing: I do not reach out to men (or members whom I believe to be men). Things can get very complicated in a bad way when this is done.

If you are a freelancer of any kind, how do you network?