The Typespec Template

Included with Editor’s ToolKit is a template containing various styles with which you can mark spec levels in a manuscript. The name of the template is TYPESPEC.DOT, and it should reside in your Word templates folder.

Whenever you prepare a document for editing in Editor’s ToolKit, the TYPESPEC template is applied to it, if you so command. If you decided you didn’t want it applied but later change your mind, you can make the template available to the document you’re working on by following this procedure:

1. Click on the Format menu.

2. Select “Style Gallery.”

3. Scroll down the list of templates until you see “TYPESPEC.”

4. Click “TYPESPEC.”

5. Click “OK.”

All of the styles in the TYPESPEC template should now be available.

You can access the styles in the TYPESPEC template by selecting Styles under the Format menu or by pressing the F5 key, but an easier way is to select them from Editor’s ToolKit 3 toolbar, in the Styles window at the left of the toolbar.

If you’re going to mark a single paragraph, just put your cursor anywhere in the paragraph, then select the style from the list in the window. If you’re going to mark more than one paragraph, first select the paragraphs you want to mark, then select the style.

The TYPESPEC template uses mainly the Verdana typeface, which was created especially for viewing on-screen. Verdana lends itself well to editing because of its legibility and because its quotation marks and dashes are easily distinguishable. Another typeface that works well for editing is Georgia, which, unlike Verdana, has serifs. Both fonts are available as free downloads from the Microsoft website, to which I’ve provided links on the Editorium website (on the Editor’s ToolKit page).

You may wonder why none of the styles in the TYPESPEC template uses bold or italic formatting. The reason is that using character formatting, such as bold and italic, is the editor’s prerogative for marking emphasis in text. Even a short heading marked with Heading 1 may have one or more individual words marked with italic for emphasis. For that reason, I’ve left the use of bold and italic up to you rather than trying to impose it upon you.

Please note that you can change the formatting of the Typespec styles any way you like. Also, you don’t have to use the TYPESPEC template for Editor’s ToolKit to work. Feel free to use any document templates you like.