Make MS Word Work for YOU: A Hands-On Workshop

by Stephanie Stone

Editors Kingston hosted this workshop on Saturday, November 18, at the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning. It was led by Adrienne Montgomerie, who is an experienced instructor and knows Word inside out.

The goal of the workshop was for attendees to learn skills that make online revising faster, more accurate, and efficient—using wildcards, macros, Track Changes, shortcuts, styles, and more. By applying our new-found skills, we would be able to reduce the mechanics and tedium of revising and editing so that we could focus on developing our ideas and honing our arguments.

 

A week before the seminar, Adrienne asked us to send her a list of topics we wanted to cover, and she amalgamated them into an overall list for the day. We also referred to her recently published and indispensable book, Editing in Word 2016, which she provided (in PDF format) as part of the seminar fee.

Adrienne began the day on the topic of macros because it can be the hardest and she wanted to discuss it off the top, while we were fresh. That was an interesting approach, and it worked well. She was a good instructor—explaining Word features clearly, setting the right pace, and giving us time to practise what we’d just learned. She also accommodated users on both Macintosh and Windows platforms as well as different versions of Word, and she did that flawlessly.

The seminar went very well, and we learned a lot. It was a small group, which helped people feel comfortable, and it allowed Adrienne to answer all our questions. We covered almost everything on Adrienne’s list of topics, and there was still time for a long lunch and an afternoon break.

We were in a room on the lowest level of the Tett Centre, down the hall from the café, so people could easily get a coffee or tea. And lunch was delicious—a small buffet of sandwiches and salads, with huge, decadent cookies for dessert.