June 3rd, 2015

Adding a little marker to your comments in Microsoft Word

This is a trick I learned while participating in a document review meeting. Before the meeting each reviewer reads the document and adds comments. All the reviewers and the document author get together, and during the meeting, we go through each comment, discuss it, and come to a conclusion. The results are recorded at the end of the comment under headings like “DISCUSSION”, “RECOMMEND”, or “CONSIDER”.

Bob Smith 2 hours ago
When should a developer use a Widget to solve a problem, and when should they use a Doodad? The choice is not clear.
→ DISCUSSION: Widgets are when there is a choice between two options. Doodads are when there is a decision that can have multiple answers.
→ RECOMMEND: Add guidance.

The meeting leader deftly entered the → character into the document without needing to pull down any menus. And this wasn’t the big, bulky arrow you get when you do the -> autocorrect.

The meeting leader explained, “I just hit the TAB key. In a comment, it enters an arrow. I discovered this by accident many years ago. I have no idea if this is a bug or a feature, but it still works!”

Author

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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