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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to
change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks |
#2
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
Have you tried using Find and Replace?
-- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "James99" wrote in message ... Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks |
#3
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a
sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42*pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. *to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks |
#4
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
In article , James99
@discussions.microsoft.com says... Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks Use search and replace. -- Peter Aitken Author, MS Word for Medical and Technical Writers www.tech-word.com |
#5
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack
of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks |
#6
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if
the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57*am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - *Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
#7
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
Can you point to a reputable British reference that indicates this as a
fact - rather than American ones - as this was certainly not what I was taught in my English education - in England! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
#8
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
I don't know what the rule is or may be, but it certainly seems to be
publishing convention in the UK these days, as opposed to the US, which uses periods for all. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Can you point to a reputable British reference that indicates this as a fact - rather than American ones - as this was certainly not what I was taught in my English education - in England! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
#9
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
For a number of years, the standard of English language education in the UK
has been pitiful. We have graduates - even teachers - who cannot spell and who have the scantest appreciation of grammar. It was not always like that. Those who set the 'standards' would say that English is an evolving language. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote: I don't know what the rule is or may be, but it certainly seems to be publishing convention in the UK these days, as opposed to the US, which uses periods for all. "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Can you point to a reputable British reference that indicates this as a fact - rather than American ones - as this was certainly not what I was taught in my English education - in England! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
#10
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
Several English friends have confirmed that punctuation is not taught
in British (elementary) schools as it is in US schools. Poor spelling in the younger end of the baby boom generation can to some extent be attributed to the "ita" "initial teaching alphabet" experiment done in the 1960s: it's a scheme of somewhat phonetic spelling that resembles traditional orthography (t.o.), and was shown to have some advantage in teaching children to read somewhat faster than teaching them in t.o., with no ill effects in transitioning to ordinary reading matter in t.o. However, either they did not test, or they did not report unfavorable results, for t.o. spelling ability. I suspect the reason was a remnant of class division: lower-class schoolboys were not expected to ever need to write anything (except possibly greengroc'ers signs), so spelling ability was not considered important. As for "appreciation of grammar," that's quite a different field from being able to put together a coherent sentence (or even being a good writer). In 12th grade we had a semester of Cultural Anthropology, which included one class where the teacher showed us a phonemic analysis of a language. It may have been that one hour that pointed me eventually in the direction of linguistics. Now forty years later, there's no reason to suppose that linguistics is yet mentioned in high school -- although now, unlike then, books are available for the general public on what linguistics is and what linguists do. PS The fact that English (like every language) is "evolving" (i.e., constantly changing) has nothing to do with teaching the standard language. There is a register known as "formal written English" that is what schools need to be concerned with. What they should _not_ be concerned with is trying to make kids _speak_ Formal Written English. On Jun 9, 11:08*am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: For a number of years, the standard of English language education in the UK has been pitiful. We have graduates - even teachers - who cannot spell and who have the scantest appreciation of grammar. It was not always like that.. *Those who set the 'standards' would say that English is an evolving language. -- Graham Mayor - *Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote: I don't know what the rule is or may be, but it certainly seems to be publishing convention in the UK these days, as opposed to the US, which uses periods for all. "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Can you point to a reputable British reference that indicates this as a fact - rather than American ones - as this was certainly not what I was taught in my English education - in England! -- Graham Mayor - *Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
#11
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
I have used government and industry standards for abbreviations for years.
The rule is no periods unless the abbreviation could be misinterpreted as a word. Spell check hates me for that. -- JoAnn Paules MVP Microsoft [Publisher] Tech Editor for "Microsoft Publisher 2007 For Dummies" "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... I don't know what the rule is or may be, but it certainly seems to be publishing convention in the UK these days, as opposed to the US, which uses periods for all. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Can you point to a reputable British reference that indicates this as a fact - rather than American ones - as this was certainly not what I was taught in my English education - in England! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
#12
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
I agree - and particularly with your postscript. Unfortunately it isn't
happening. It seems that the use of correct English is considered elitist, and in a 'multi-racial society' probably has racist overtones! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: Several English friends have confirmed that punctuation is not taught in British (elementary) schools as it is in US schools. Poor spelling in the younger end of the baby boom generation can to some extent be attributed to the "ita" "initial teaching alphabet" experiment done in the 1960s: it's a scheme of somewhat phonetic spelling that resembles traditional orthography (t.o.), and was shown to have some advantage in teaching children to read somewhat faster than teaching them in t.o., with no ill effects in transitioning to ordinary reading matter in t.o. However, either they did not test, or they did not report unfavorable results, for t.o. spelling ability. I suspect the reason was a remnant of class division: lower-class schoolboys were not expected to ever need to write anything (except possibly greengroc'ers signs), so spelling ability was not considered important. As for "appreciation of grammar," that's quite a different field from being able to put together a coherent sentence (or even being a good writer). In 12th grade we had a semester of Cultural Anthropology, which included one class where the teacher showed us a phonemic analysis of a language. It may have been that one hour that pointed me eventually in the direction of linguistics. Now forty years later, there's no reason to suppose that linguistics is yet mentioned in high school -- although now, unlike then, books are available for the general public on what linguistics is and what linguists do. PS The fact that English (like every language) is "evolving" (i.e., constantly changing) has nothing to do with teaching the standard language. There is a register known as "formal written English" that is what schools need to be concerned with. What they should _not_ be concerned with is trying to make kids _speak_ Formal Written English. On Jun 9, 11:08 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: For a number of years, the standard of English language education in the UK has been pitiful. We have graduates - even teachers - who cannot spell and who have the scantest appreciation of grammar. It was not always like that. Those who set the 'standards' would say that English is an evolving language. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote: I don't know what the rule is or may be, but it certainly seems to be publishing convention in the UK these days, as opposed to the US, which uses periods for all. "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Can you point to a reputable British reference that indicates this as a fact - rather than American ones - as this was certainly not what I was taught in my English education - in England! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
#13
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
What do you mean by "use"? To use forma written English in almost any
conversational situation is in fact elitist and expression of one's own supposed class superiority. On Jun 10, 1:03*am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: I agree - and particularly with your postscript. Unfortunately it isn't happening. It seems that the use of correct English is considered elitist, and in a 'multi-racial society' probably has racist overtones! -- Graham Mayor - *Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: Several English friends have confirmed that punctuation is not taught in British (elementary) schools as it is in US schools. Poor spelling in the younger end of the baby boom generation can to some extent be attributed to the "ita" "initial teaching alphabet" experiment done in the 1960s: it's a scheme of somewhat phonetic spelling that resembles traditional orthography (t.o.), and was shown to have some advantage in teaching children to read somewhat faster than teaching them in t.o., with no ill effects in transitioning to ordinary reading matter in t.o. However, either they did not test, or they did not report unfavorable results, for t.o. spelling ability. I suspect the reason was a remnant of class division: lower-class schoolboys were not expected to ever need to write anything (except possibly greengroc'ers signs), so spelling ability was not considered important. As for "appreciation of grammar," that's quite a different field from being able to put together a coherent sentence (or even being a good writer). In 12th grade we had a semester of Cultural Anthropology, which included one class where the teacher showed us a phonemic analysis of a language. It may have been that one hour that pointed me eventually in the direction of linguistics. Now forty years later, there's no reason to suppose that linguistics is yet mentioned in high school -- although now, unlike then, books are available for the general public on what linguistics is and what linguists do. PS The fact that English (like every language) is "evolving" (i.e., constantly changing) has nothing to do with teaching the standard language. There is a register known as "formal written English" that is what schools need to be concerned with. What they should _not_ be concerned with is trying to make kids _speak_ Formal Written English. On Jun 9, 11:08 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: For a number of years, the standard of English language education in the UK has been pitiful. We have graduates - even teachers - who cannot spell and who have the scantest appreciation of grammar. It was not always like that. Those who set the 'standards' would say that English is an evolving language. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote: I don't know what the rule is or may be, but it certainly seems to be publishing convention in the UK these days, as opposed to the US, which uses periods for all. "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Can you point to a reputable British reference that indicates this as a fact - rather than American ones - as this was certainly not what I was taught in my English education - in England! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- |
#14
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Changing Mrs. to Mrs in Word 2003
I was referring to the need to educate in the use if formal written English.
-- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: What do you mean by "use"? To use forma written English in almost any conversational situation is in fact elitist and expression of one's own supposed class superiority. On Jun 10, 1:03 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: I agree - and particularly with your postscript. Unfortunately it isn't happening. It seems that the use of correct English is considered elitist, and in a 'multi-racial society' probably has racist overtones! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: Several English friends have confirmed that punctuation is not taught in British (elementary) schools as it is in US schools. Poor spelling in the younger end of the baby boom generation can to some extent be attributed to the "ita" "initial teaching alphabet" experiment done in the 1960s: it's a scheme of somewhat phonetic spelling that resembles traditional orthography (t.o.), and was shown to have some advantage in teaching children to read somewhat faster than teaching them in t.o., with no ill effects in transitioning to ordinary reading matter in t.o. However, either they did not test, or they did not report unfavorable results, for t.o. spelling ability. I suspect the reason was a remnant of class division: lower-class schoolboys were not expected to ever need to write anything (except possibly greengroc'ers signs), so spelling ability was not considered important. As for "appreciation of grammar," that's quite a different field from being able to put together a coherent sentence (or even being a good writer). In 12th grade we had a semester of Cultural Anthropology, which included one class where the teacher showed us a phonemic analysis of a language. It may have been that one hour that pointed me eventually in the direction of linguistics. Now forty years later, there's no reason to suppose that linguistics is yet mentioned in high school -- although now, unlike then, books are available for the general public on what linguistics is and what linguists do. PS The fact that English (like every language) is "evolving" (i.e., constantly changing) has nothing to do with teaching the standard language. There is a register known as "formal written English" that is what schools need to be concerned with. What they should _not_ be concerned with is trying to make kids _speak_ Formal Written English. On Jun 9, 11:08 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: For a number of years, the standard of English language education in the UK has been pitiful. We have graduates - even teachers - who cannot spell and who have the scantest appreciation of grammar. It was not always like that. Those who set the 'standards' would say that English is an evolving language. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote: I don't know what the rule is or may be, but it certainly seems to be publishing convention in the UK these days, as opposed to the US, which uses periods for all. "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Can you point to a reputable British reference that indicates this as a fact - rather than American ones - as this was certainly not what I was taught in my English education - in England! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: No, the rule for punctuating abbreviations in British style is that if the abbreviation includes the last letter of the abbreviated word, there is no period. This holds for M(iste)r, Mist)r(es)s, and D(octo)r. On Jun 9, 12:57 am, "Graham Mayor" wrote: There is no reason why English UK spell check should catch this as the lack of a full stop is wrong in British English. These are abbreviations and their omission is simply sloppy practice. However.a wildcard search for ([MD]{1}[rs]{1,2}). replace with \1 will remove the stop from Mr. Mrs. and Dr. It will also catch Ms. which is not an abbreviation, but which is usually given a stop for consistency. Other salutations eg Messrs. require an extra search -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web sitewww.gmayor.com Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org grammatim wrote: If you know that none of the abbreviations comes at the end of a sentence (which seems likely), you can simply do Find/Replace of each abbreviaton. (The "etc." in your description is troubling, though.) Or, you could switch your SpellCheck language to English (UK) and see if it catches them. On Jun 8, 12:42 pm, James99 wrote: Hello I have a 100,00 word document that needs editing. I would like to change Mrs. Mr. to Mrs, Mr etc. (ie without a fullstop). Is it possible in Word 2003 for it to reformat a document to this. I've tried to format autocorrect but that seems to work on new documents only. I would appreciate any help. Thanks- |
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