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The Editing Blog: for Editors, Proofreaders and Writers

FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

Using proofreading macros: Highlighting confusables with CompareWordList

22/1/2016

10 Comments

 
Every writer, copy-editor and proofreader comes across words that are used correctly but spelled incorrectly (typos), but we also have to look out for words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly – this is the world of confusables.
Macro for writers, editors and proofreaders
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What are confusables?
Some confusables are not only spelled differently, they sound very different too, e.g. imply/infer; militate/mitigate; reactionary/reactive. In this case, the writer might have misunderstood the meaning.

​
Some confusables are homophones – words that are spelled differently but sound the same, e.g. rein/reign; stationary/stationery; prophecy/prophesy; loath/loathe. In this case, the writer understands the different meanings, but is unsure of the appropriate spelling.

Then there are errors that are simply a result of hands moving too fast over a keyboard – the meanings and correct spellings are known to the writer, but, in their haste, perhaps they’ve transposed a couple of letters or omitted a character.

​Or it may be that the automatic spellcheck has kicked into gear and the writer hasn’t noticed the problem because they’re concentrating on the bigger picture. Examples might include e.g. filed/field; adverse/averse; pubic/public.

Blind spots
Writers aren't the only ones with blind spots. Editorial pros do too. It’s our job to spot these problems and fix them. However, we’re only human and most of us have a few blind-spot words that our eyes are, on occasion, less likely to notice, even though we do know the differences in meaning and spelling.

My own blind spots are gaffe/gaff, brake/break and peek/pique/peak. I don’t know why my eye doesn’t spot these pesky confusables as readily, especially when the likes of compliment/complement or stationary/stationery scream at me from the page! However, I accept that I do have blind spots and have taken steps to ameliorate the problem with a little mechanical help – the macro.

How can macros help?
Using macros enables us to identify possible problems before we get down to the business of actually reading, line by line, for sense.

Every time we find an error, we have to think about it and decide whether to amend. By reducing the number of interruptions, we can focus our attention on the flow of the words in front of us and increase efficiency.

For this reason, I, like many of my colleagues, run my macros at the beginning of a project (though I often repeat the process at the end stage too).

What’s on offer in the world of confusables?
There are several free macros available to the copy-editor or proofreader who wants to tackle confusables with efficiency. See, for example, the excellent “A Macro for Commonly Confused Words” published by C.K. MacLeod on Tech Tools for Writers (updated July 2015).

Another option, and the one that I’m currently using, is the CompareWordList macro created by Allen Wyatt on WordTips. See “Highlight Words from a List” (updated July 2015). 

As some of you will already know, Wyatt has two WordTips sites; the one you use will be determined by which version of Word you’re running.

The linked article above will take readers to the article written for MS Word 2007, 2010 and above. If you are working with an older version of Word, you’ll need to follow Wyatt’s links to the sister site.
 
Why I’m using Wyatt’s CompareWordList
CompareWordList is currently my preferred tool simply because of how easy it is to create and update my own list of words to be checked – words that can, on occasion, be blind spots for me.

As I’ll show below, customizing the list of confusables doesn’t require me to amend the script of the macro once it’s installed. Instead, all I have to do is amend a basic list in a Word document – nice and simple!

Using CompareWordList 1: Create your list of confusables
The first thing to do is to create a list of the words you want the macro to find, and highlight, in a Word document.
  • Simply open up a new Word document, give it a name (I called mine “confusables”), and save it in your preferred folder (I chose to save it in my Macros folder, but you can save yours wherever you want).
  • Make a note of the location of your document (for example, mine is in c:\Users\Louise\Dropbox\Macros\confusables.docx).
For speed, and so you can see the basic format of the list, you can download a copy of a list here. If you want to rename it, do so. Then add words, or remove them, as you see fit.

Using CompareWordList 2: Get, and tweak, the code
Visit “Highlight Words from a List” and copy the code. If you’re completely new to installing macros, just paste the script in a Word document for now so that you can tweak it easily.

​Below is a screenshot of Wyatt's code. The highlighted sections show where I’ve tweaked the code to suit my own needs.
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Screenshot of Allen Wyatt's CompareWordList macro code
Tweaks to consider
(1)  I’ve changed Wyatt's code (as per his suggestion) so that it describes where my list of confusables is located: sCheckDoc = "c:\Users\Louise\Dropbox\Macros\confusables.docx". You’ll use the location you made a note of when you created your own list (see the section above – Using CompareWordList 1: Create your list of confusables).

(2) Wyatt's code emboldens the words found by the macro; I wanted them highlighted so I replaced the highlighted text as follows: .Replacement.Highlight = True.

(3) I changed the Match Whole Word instruction to False because I wanted the macro to find part words. This, of course, will pull up some false positives but it was the easiest solution I could find.

(4) I also changed the Match Case instruction to False.

Now that you’ve tweaked the code to suit your own needs, you’re ready to install it (the basic, step-by-step instructions below are provided for the benefit of those who are completely new to macro installation).
​
Using CompareWordList 3: Install the code
With Word open, open the “View” tab and click on the “Macros” icon on the ribbon.
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This will open up a new window.

If you don’t have any macros already loaded:
  • To get you going, create a test macro that you can delete later.
  • First, make sure the Normal.dotm template is showing in the "Macros in:” box.
  • Type TEST into the “Macro name:” box.
  • Click on the “Create”. Your TEST macro will now show up. From now on, it’ll be easy as pie to add additional macros.
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If you have macros loaded (your TEST macro or any other):
  • Click on “Edit”.
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This will open up a further window:
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  • If necessary, use the scroll bar to take you to the bottom of the text.
  • Paste the CompareWordList script at the end, under “End Sub”
  • Close the window using the X in the top right-hand corner.
The installation is now complete.

Running CompareWordList
  • Open the Word file in which you want to locate potential confusbles.
  • Click the “View” tab.
  • Click the “Macros” icon on the ribbon.
  • Select "CompareWordList" from the list.
  • Click “Run”.

Removing highlights one by one
Here’s a tiny macro that I recorded to remove a highlight as I move through a Word document. Installing this means I simply have to click on a highlighted word and run the macro.

Assigning a shortcut button (see below) makes the job easy and efficient. I decided on Alt H because I don’t have that keyboard shortcut assigned to any function that I carry out regularly.
​
Sub UndoHighlight()
'
' UndoHighlight Macro
'
'
    Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdNoHighlight
    Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdNoHighlight
End Sub


To install: Simply copy the red script above and install it in the same way that you installed the CompareWordList macro.

To create a shortcut key: In Word, select File, Options, Customize Ribbon (1). Click on Customize (2). A new box will open up entitled “Customize keyboard”. In the Categories window (3), scroll down and select Macros. In the Macros window (4), select UndoHighlight. Finally, choose your preferred keyboard combination by typing it into the Press New Shortcut Key window (5). Select Assign and Close.
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To remove ALL highlighting in one go: For this job, Paul Beverley’s your man. A huge number of macros are available in his free book, Computer Tools for Editors (available on his website at Archive Publications).

Hope you find this useful!
Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, and check out her books and courses.
10 Comments
Richard Adin link
24/1/2016 11:16:45 am

Excellent article, Louise, and a good solution to a problem. Alas, as you already suspect, I do have some comments. :)

First, the MacLeod solution that you refer to ("A Macro for Commonly Confused Words") has what I consider a major failing -- the lack of an easy way to expand or condense the list. It is a solution for those who are comfortable dealing with macros and VBA.

Second, the Wyatt solution ("Highlight Words from a Word List") needs modifications, which also require a comfort level with VBA. Of the two options, the Wyatt option is certainly the better solution, especially because it relies on a separate list of confusables.

If I had to choose between the two options, I would certainly choose the Wyatt option.

But there is a third option, which is the Never Spell Word macro in my EditTools collection of macros (http://www.wordsnSync.com). Users of EditTools need only do the following: (1) rename one of the tabs in the Never Spell Word Manager to "Confusables"; (2) create a new dataset file called confusables.nsw and enter one confusable, such as "pubic" and choose a highlight color by selecting "check entry" from drop down list. This will assign red as the highlight color.

Now, you can do one of two things to create your list. If it is a short list, you can continue entering words one-by-one. Alternatively, you can open confusables.nsw in Notepad (it is really only a text file) and either type in each word or copy and paste a list of words into the file. Then do a search and replace -- replace the paragraph return mark (^p) with "[space]|[space]red" (don't type [space], use a the spacebar to enter a space) and click Replace All. You can even change the Red highlight color to some other color (but do not change it to some other color that NSW uses), such as pink, teal, or bright green. (BTW, even if you enter the list manually, you can change the color by using Notepad and simply doing a Find & Replace on the color.) When done, save the file as a text file but with the .nsw extension. You are set to go.

Found another word to add while editing? Just open the NSW manager and add it to the tab. No need to know VBA or macros.

As for removing the highlighting, EditTools offers two options: a macro to remove ALL highlighting in the document and a macro that lets you choose which highlight colors to remove. You run the macro when you are done editing or proofing the document, not with each instance.

Finally there is one other option in Word for confusables: the Exclude dictionary. You can add these words to the Exclude dictionary and they will appear in the document with the red squiggly underline that Word uses to suggest a word is misspelled. I don't remember offhand the way to access the Exclude dictionary in traditional Word but if you are Using EditTools, you only need to right-click on the word and from the menu that appears choose "Add To Exclude Dictionary". Word's Exclude dictionary has been a popular option for many years for catching confusables, although I like your suggestion of highlighting much better.

Reply
Peter Haigh link
25/1/2016 09:00:28 am

Fantastic - thanks Louise.

As someone new to the industry, I find the various tools invaluable to me as I learn and refine the craft of improving documents.

The macros / Word add-ins really help with consistency of error spotting and, of course, save time and money.

This macro, along with the Paul Beverley suite of macros and PerfectIt are now my basic tools.

I'm particularly grateful that you linked your list of common confusables - it's always nice when people share their tools and techniques for the greater good.

Thank you!

Peter Haigh
BA BEng MSc CEng MIET
www.technicaleditorial.com

Reply
KL Cooper
13/3/2017 06:18:39 pm

Please change the font on your website. I can barely read it. It strains my eyes. And this should definitely NOT be the case for website/blog that talks about proofreading!

Reply
Louise Harnby
13/3/2017 10:30:05 pm

Is it the colour or the actual font that's straining your eyes, KL? Once I know, I'll survey other readers too.

Reply
Rosanna Cantavella link
24/3/2017 12:38:17 pm

Thank you, dear Louise, for sharing yet another great tool with your readers!

I see you have changed your website's appearance. The new one is very nice, no doubt about it; but it has certainly lost a bit on readability in three fronts: (a) font colour, a too tenuous grey; (b) background white a too shiny shade; (c) zero serif, always problematic for small-size fonts. All three easily rectifiable, anyway.

Thank you again for your invaluable blog!

Reply
Louise Harnby
24/3/2017 01:13:42 pm

Hi Rosanna! Thanks for your feedback. I think it depends on the device. The grey is clear to me! However, I want to be readable for as many people as possible so I'll play around with the grey and see if I can deepen it. The background, on the blog anyway, is unchangeable, but I can certainly play around with the sections on the other pages. As for the font, that's trickier. I'd be happy to settle for Arial, but I'm not going to introduce a serif font. I haven't used that for years. I'll have a tinker and see how things look. Difficult to get it right so that everyone likes it, especially given the number of visitors! Really appreciate your taking the time to make me think about it, though!

Reply
Katie Madsen Chambers link
27/6/2019 11:51:48 pm

Great macro!!

I wanted to be able to check "in to" versus into, but since I added that to my confusables list, it marks all instances of "to" and "in" since it doesn't recognize that I want to only highlight when in and to appear next to each other.

Other than that, this is excellent so thanks for sharing.

Reply
Louise Harnby
28/6/2019 12:41:53 pm

Yup, it's not perfect! I'd use PerfectIt for the in to/into flagging.

Reply
Timothy Barton link
15/12/2022 07:46:47 pm

If you want to check both at the same time, you can do this with wildcards. Either of these two strings should work::

<i[n ]{1,2}to>
<in[ t]{1,2}o>

No need to put anything in the replace box. You just check through them all and make any changes manually (if you do find that you make the change in one direction more than the other, you could put either "into" or "in to" in the replace box so that you can use the fix button).

Brent Miller link
18/11/2022 07:47:59 pm

What a great tool! Thank you for sharing.

At first it wasn't working for me, because I hadn't selected a highlighter color before running it.

I added the following line to the initial variable declarations of the macro and it worked every time:

Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdDarkYellow

Reply



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