F3 Tough Guy

     Any moron can get himself a gat. Toting about a gun doesn't make someone tough. It certainly doesn't make someone smart. More often than not,

Writing Tools: Macros--replace periods

     One of the pet peeves of copyeditors is the dreaded double space after a period, or other sentence ending punctuation. And for authors preparing a manuscript, it becomes tedious to find and replace all these instances, even using the word processors feature. So here is a quick little macro for Word that does just that. Assign the macro to a button, and when it's time for the tediousness, simply click it.
     This macro can also be modified to accommodate exclamation points and question marks by replacing the period in the find and replace lines, then the whole thing could be run at once to replace all the spaces after end punctuation.

Here's the macro in its entirety:

Sub periodspace()
'
' periodspace Macro
'
'
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = ". "
.Replacement.Text = ". "
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

F3 Hired by a Squirrel

     "You're the Shamus," a voice two registers above my normal headache threshold piped. Seeing as I had once again taken in too much pixie nectar, my headache threshold had already been shattered. The voice drilled in through my ear, stabbed into my brain, and caused unfocused eyes to pop open in pain, which redoubled upon seeing

Writing Tools: Normal.dot continued

     A few weeks back I talked about the infamous normal.dot in general terms, and what can be done with it. Now I've got a couple of websites that go into a little more information.
     The first is a guide on how to change the normal.dot found here: Change normal.dot. Now, a simple way to create a backup of the file is to

F3 A Different Title

     "Samuel Faraday," the King intoned. I'd never heard someone intone before, but the way his voice lingered in the Great Hall, well, that was intoning. "For your services to the Crown, you shall be made a Knight—"
     "Um!" I began "begging your pardon, Majesty?"

Writing Tools: Emergency computer plan

     Not long ago, agent extraordinaire and shark Janet Reid experienced some computer difficulties. While she was able to resolve the dilemma (without much expense or cost in time), it got me thinking about the tech dilemma.

Character File: Ben Slater

F3 Dealing with Damsels

     "Oh, cripes. You're a D.I.D."
     "A what?"
     "Damsel in Distress. You need rescuing or something, don't you?"
     "A wicked troll captured me. I fled from the forest, and came here. Please help me."
     Yep. Definitely a D.I.D. Unfortunately, that meant a troll would be coming this way right quick. I wasn't equipped to fight

F3 Missing: Prince Charming

     The knock on my door eventually cut through the haze of my pixie nectar hangover. No one ever mentions the after kick that stuff packs. I staggered to the source of the knock, a response less conscious than necessary response to the pain the knocking caused.
     I pulled the rough wooden door open, and squinted at the too cheerful sunlight, wanting to recoil back into the darkness of my bed.