Suggestion Box

Thank you for making me aware of 'Edit Points.' I did not know about them. They offer some useful possibilities and led me to an interesting learning exercise where I got many answers and a few more questions.

Let's work with a hypothetical text of 6,000 words in 150 paragraphs in a Portfolio containing 200 Static Items. I am a 'Premium' member and I post something and review something every week. I therefore function as both a writer and a reviewer. The items I write also get used and posted in places other than WdC.

As both a writer and a reviewer, I want to be able to zero in on a specific piece of text quickly, easily, and accurately. I don't want to spend 300 words identifying the location of a spot where I am applying a 30 word comment. I use paragraph and/or line numbering to accomplish that (but not in WdC). For example, I want to be able to say:
--> "On line 457, you mispelled the word 'Mississippi'."
--> "What you said about John's job in paragraph 55 contradicts what you said in paragraph 49."
--> "In paragraph 10, Jane has blue eyes. In paragraph 175, Jane has brown eyes."

As a Writer, everything I write (finished products) resides on my hard drive as a docx file, say Story.docx. It may also be there in other formats, such as pdf or txt but the docx file is the master file. If I choose to post this to WdC, I 'save as' Story_WdC.docx and on that file I insert all the {???} stuff. God bless Search/Replace.

Find: ^P
Replace all with: ^P^P

Find: ^P
Replace all with: ^P{indent}

Now I can:
Find: ^P
Replace all with: ^P{ep:#}{indent}

Then
Find next: #
Manually replace with a number. Yes, I know that would be 150 manual entries Ugh!, but I would have numbered paragraphs in a WdC item that a reviewer could use. When I get to my max of 25, I would start removing the EPs from the oldest documents. No, I'm not going up to Premium Plus. I already give you too much money.

As a Reviewer, I have never had anyone give me that courtesy and I don't expect it in the future (though maybe I could start a trend). So, I copy/paste the story I am reviewing from WdC to MSWord, use the 'Numbered List' function to number the paragraphs, then include this message near the beginning of my review:

Clarification:
          – To help us stay oriented, I have numbered the paragraphs as you have assigned them.
          – The text beginning “Richard lay face down” is paragraph 1.
          – The text beginning “It wasn’t easy releasing” is the last paragraph which becomes paragraph 187.
          – The text “***” (3 instances) are not numbered.

If the writer cares, he can number his own paragraphs; if he doesn't neither do I.

Thoughts and questions:
1. What is the difference between 'Clear Edit Points' and 'Remove Edit Points'?
2. 'After Punctuation' appears to be 'After Paragraph' and will put an EP number following each paragraph, which is close to but awkwardly equivalent to paragraph numbering.
3. 'At Line breaks - left aligned - right aligned' I had trouble here. Is this three separate commands or one command with two choices?
4. 'Manage Manually' lets me change {ep:#} to {ep:1} one at a time, and place them wherever I wish in the text.
5. If I insert {ep:#} in my text, Edit Points will NOT automatically replace the # with a number.
6. Does the EP function work in a review or feedback item or is it limited to Static Items?
7. Can I insert EPs manually in a review or feedback item or are they limited to Static Items?

Thanks for alerting me to Edit Points, and causing this little 'adventure in learning.' I look forward to your answers.

– Will Strunk