OK is not Okay
I observed that the abbreviation 'OK' is usually, and more correctly, spelled out 'okay' in creative writing. While editing for a different fine point in my novel, "Promise Full of Thorns," I noticed my characters say "OK" quite often. Uh-oh! I would have to weed that out and change 'OK' to 'okay' whenever it appears in 345 pages/90,218 words.
Groan! This could take several days, maybe a week of work. So I began in MS Word: Clicked on Edit/Find. Find What: OK. Replace with: okay. Find next: The finder landed on page 2, highlighting the last two letters in 'book,' then jumping to page 4 to the last two letters of 'took.' Oh no--double groan!! I re-estimated that the process would then take weeks, not days. In frustration, I turned off the computer.
The next day I re-focused and attempted the task again, deciding to check out the More feature under Find and Replace. Voila! There was a choice of locating Whole Words Only! This trick worked like magic, immediately going to my first instance of 'OK' on page 22. Much better! Next it went to page 26, and so on. There were a great number of 'OKs', as every character said it, but the finder feature went through all 90,218 words quickly, enabling me to change 'OK' to 'okay' beginning with small or capital letter, as needed. The process took maybe 15 minutes after all!
Now I'm happy to say "Promise" is AOK, but I expect that more editing "Thorns" lie ahead.
Groan! This could take several days, maybe a week of work. So I began in MS Word: Clicked on Edit/Find. Find What: OK. Replace with: okay. Find next: The finder landed on page 2, highlighting the last two letters in 'book,' then jumping to page 4 to the last two letters of 'took.' Oh no--double groan!! I re-estimated that the process would then take weeks, not days. In frustration, I turned off the computer.
The next day I re-focused and attempted the task again, deciding to check out the More feature under Find and Replace. Voila! There was a choice of locating Whole Words Only! This trick worked like magic, immediately going to my first instance of 'OK' on page 22. Much better! Next it went to page 26, and so on. There were a great number of 'OKs', as every character said it, but the finder feature went through all 90,218 words quickly, enabling me to change 'OK' to 'okay' beginning with small or capital letter, as needed. The process took maybe 15 minutes after all!
Now I'm happy to say "Promise" is AOK, but I expect that more editing "Thorns" lie ahead.
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Sheila
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Jul 05, 2016 12:57PM
Great job! So many hidden features in Word; I hadn't found that one, but I shall use it in my next edit. Thank you.
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Nice to know there is a suave solution! :)
Thanks...didn't know about the "Whole Word" option. Another trick: search for "OK " where you type a deliberate space between the K and the ". Note that this wouldn't catch a "OK." or "OK,"
