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Editing documents is often a necessary yet time-consuming part of many jobs.
If you need to review reports, proofread articles, or provide feedback on drafts, having to focus your mental energy on editing can disrupt your workflow and decrease productivity.
Still, there are many strategies you can use to streamline the editing process so you can get more done in less time. This allows you to focus your efforts where they are most useful.
In this article, we will give you some tips and strategies to help you become more productive when editing your documents.
So, rather than editing documents in a piecemeal fashion, set aside blocks of time devoted specifically to the editing process. This allows you to review multiple documents in one sitting and focus your full attention, leading to higher-quality work. Having an uninterrupted period will increase your speed and efficiency compared to trying to edit between meetings or while handling emails.
You may wish to identify certain portions of the day or week when you consistently edit. By planning ahead, you can set aside enough time to not feel so rushed. It can also help you put your mind in editing mode and be ready to provide thoughtful feedback.
DID YOU KNOW?
Editing is the process of revising a piece of writing’s content, organization, grammar, and presentation. The purpose of editing is to ensure that the reader’s ideas are presented as clearly as possible.
Although most editing today occurs digitally due to remote work, reviewing physical printouts can boost productivity in some cases. Reading on paper reduces distractions from email notifications, so you can stay immersed in the content. Marking up hard copies also feels more natural than using digital commenting tools for some.
Printing longer documents or those requiring heavy editing allows you to easily scan, highlight, circle, and annotate areas that need changes. You capture feedback more intuitively without constantly clicking, typing, or toggling between apps. Just be sure to transfer any paper notes to digital versions so they are saved.
Having to constantly scroll through lengthy Word documents or long columns in Google Docs bogs down many editors. Visually jumping around breaks your chain of thought, while hunting for comment anchors eats up precious time.
Using multiple monitors helps prevent this issue through easy side-by-side viewing. Place the original draft on one screen and keep your edited version, notes, or style guide rules open on the other. This simplifies cross-checking facts, ensuring consistent formatting, comparing versions, and streamlining other editing tasks.
If you use a single laptop screen, make use of split viewing when the operating system allows it. This displays two windows side-by-side for easier visual comparison. Tablets can also mirror screens on external monitors to gain more digital real estate. When editing on paper, use multicolored highlighters for different feedback types.
All software programs contain shortcuts to expedite editing, though most of you rely on just a handful. Taking time to learn new keyboard shortcuts, customize toolbars, and create macros tailored to your editing workflow can greatly enhance productivity once mastered.
Useful examples include automatically formatting documents to your style guide, inserting common comments like “awkward phrases,” transposing paragraphs, removing double spaces, and accessing word count. Start slowly gaining proficiency with those you’ll use most. Over time, these will become second nature, saving precious seconds with every click avoided.
Print out a shortcut reference list and keep it close by as you learn. Highlight or group those most relevant to editing tasks separately from shortcuts beneficial for general use. Install cheat sheet browser extensions for a quick reminder without leaving your work screen.
Technology now provides advanced assistance when editing documents. Features like autosave and version control reduce potential headaches from lost work or mixed drafts. Word’s Compare feature cleanly shows all changes between versions. Google Docs even uses AI to catch potential grammar, conciseness, and inclusiveness issues as you type, plus it offers pre-written comments to insert.
DID YOU KNOW?
Being able to edit documents on a mobile phone will become pretty important in 2024. In recent studies, around 80% of business leaders used a mobile phone for their work-related tasks. This shows just how important mobile devices have become in our daily lives.
There are also browser extensions to aid editing. Grammarly catches tricky grammar mistakes, while Hemingway Editor highlights complex sentences and passive voice. Be careful not to become over-reliant on technology, though a human touch still provides the best overall editing. Use these tools as an initial scan to identify areas to review more closely.
You can also use software to instantly convert PDF files into editable Word documents. This ‘PDF to Word’ functionality lets you quickly bring material from other sources into a format suitable for your editing workflow. The converted content acts just like any other Word document, so your regular review tools and shortcuts can then be leveraged for efficiency gains. Learn how to convert a PDF here.
Editing productivity slows tremendously if you waste time hunting for specific items needing correction in lengthy documents. Rather than tediously scanning or using Find/Replace tools haphazardly, develop robust search skills using wildcards, Boolean phrases, and advanced options.
Learn to quickly filter based on formatting, punctuation attributes, proximity to other words, case sensitivity, whole word only, and more. Complex searches like “find any 3-digit number not followed by a percentage symbol” can be done in seconds. This pinpoints the exact editing spots you need while ignoring irrelevant matches.
Take advantage of the search and replace functions. With this, you can easily handle frequent mistakes like inconsistent capitalization, hyphenation, branding terminology, proper noun spelling, and other different issues. You can also enable the preview feature to check replacements in context before committing to any changes.
Most editors end up performing certain steps repeatedly when reviewing documents. This includes checking for proper heading formats, replacing specified terms, running accessibility checks, validating links, or revising tables. Manually repeating these actions drags down productivity over time.
Try automating these recurring tasks through built-in software capabilities, scripts, macros, or AI tools when possible. This reduces repetitive strain while increasing reliability through an automated approach less prone to human error over time.
INTRIGUING FACT
Automation features in document editing tools can greatly increase productivity. A study by Forrester Consulting found that organizations using workflow automation experienced a 50% reduction in time spent on document-related tasks.
Word’s macro recorder captures your manual steps into reusable click sequences for one-click playback later. Web tools like Zapier integrate with Google Docs to attach scripts, reducing grunt work. Explore what options are available in your editing programs of choice. This cuts down setup time considerably, so you can focus energy on value-added review.
Applying even a handful of these editing productivity tips will help you sail through document reviews faster. Precious time and mental energy get conserved, which boosts overall workflow across projects. Be sure to experiment with different techniques to determine which yields the biggest advantages based on your specific editing workload, strengths, and style. Soon you will be able to handle more and longer documents in less time, greatly magnifying your productivity and showcasing your skills.
Also Read: How To Make A PDF Editable With Ease
