Editing tip #1: Get rid of those extra spaces

This is the first in a series of editing tips for writers preparing their work for self-publication. They are presented in no particular order and represent tasks an editor or proofreader might do. Writers should still use a professional editor, but why pay for anything you can do yourself?

Get rid of those extra spaces. Your sentences should have only one space after a period. No matter how large your document is, you can check for and fix any extra spaces with a global search and replace. In Microsoft Word, for example, press Ctrl + h to display this window:

In the Find what field, type a period followed by two spaces.

In the Replace with field, type a period followed by one space.

Click Replace All.

How do you indent a paragraph? If you use the space bar, you may wind up with inconsistent indents—some five spaces, some four or six. Word and other programs can be set to automatically indent, but let’s put that aside for now. Many writers indent using a half-inch tab, and that’s fine. So let’s replace all those five-spaced indents with tabs:

Ctrl + h

In the Find what field, type exactly five spaces.

In the Replace with field, type ^t.

Click Replace All.

Then you can repeat the process by replacing ^t plus a space with ^t only, and then do the same process with four spaces.

Finally, do a search for two spaces and replace with one.