![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I have certain words that tend to grow like fungus in my fic - I TRY not to use them and yet they all still appear anyway. And now that I have two longish fics getting near I thought I'd look for some useful tools to finding them. And I did!
This only works if you already know your particular hobby horse overused words. But if you know you do it and you know what they are, it's quite striking.
First, select a color in the highlighter. Doesn't matter where you are in the document, just make sure you're not selecting anything.
Then open the Replace box (ctrl-H). Type in your crutch in the FIND box.
Next, click in the Replace box. Type nothing in it.
Now, down below, if it's not already open, select MORE to get to the place where you can pick special formatting. it should have REPLACE (if it still says FIND, go back and click in the replace box).
Select FORMAT
Select HIGHLIGHT from the drop-down.
Select REPLACE ALL.
What this does is point out to you IN BRIGHT COLOR where all instances of that particular word are. I find it handier than going through with FIND because they're all marked.
If you are me, then you can go back and select a different color and a different Find word. And you get a really kind of beautifully colored document of LAME WORD USAGE.
Then when you're done, select your entire document and make the whole document No Highlight color. If you've left any, the highlight marks will disappear.
This will also, btw, help if, say, you're writing porn and you use a particular word in several forms too often; you can check the box to "Find all word forms" and it'll find, for ex: caress, caressingly, caressed, etc. It'll even find all variations on "to be", if you are particularly prone to passive voice.
It's nifty! It's colorful!
This has been a PSA brought to you by the Committee to Stop Using Weasel Words that Undercut Your Fic.
*head desk*
This only works if you already know your particular hobby horse overused words. But if you know you do it and you know what they are, it's quite striking.
First, select a color in the highlighter. Doesn't matter where you are in the document, just make sure you're not selecting anything.
Then open the Replace box (ctrl-H). Type in your crutch in the FIND box.
Next, click in the Replace box. Type nothing in it.
Now, down below, if it's not already open, select MORE to get to the place where you can pick special formatting. it should have REPLACE (if it still says FIND, go back and click in the replace box).
Select FORMAT
Select HIGHLIGHT from the drop-down.
Select REPLACE ALL.
What this does is point out to you IN BRIGHT COLOR where all instances of that particular word are. I find it handier than going through with FIND because they're all marked.
If you are me, then you can go back and select a different color and a different Find word. And you get a really kind of beautifully colored document of LAME WORD USAGE.
Then when you're done, select your entire document and make the whole document No Highlight color. If you've left any, the highlight marks will disappear.
This will also, btw, help if, say, you're writing porn and you use a particular word in several forms too often; you can check the box to "Find all word forms" and it'll find, for ex: caress, caressingly, caressed, etc. It'll even find all variations on "to be", if you are particularly prone to passive voice.
It's nifty! It's colorful!
This has been a PSA brought to you by the Committee to Stop Using Weasel Words that Undercut Your Fic.
*head desk*
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject