Excel spreadsheets: XLS, XLSX

These are the default formats for Microsoft Excel. Excel supports its own form of formatting. You can add comments, and it has a spellchecker. Spreadsheets can be a useful format if you’re exporting text from a database, for example.

For a spreadsheet, Wordy editors will check only spelling, grammar and other issues to do with language. It is unlikely that your editor will look at any formulas or how numbers are rendered.

There are no tracked changes. Editors can mark changes using highlighting or by colouring text. However, doing this is time-consuming, so you would need to specifically ask your editor to do so.

The word counter works in much the same way for XLSX files as it does for DOCX, effectively treating each sheet as a table. It also includes the name of the sheet. The word count includes words and numbers. A formula counts as a single word.

As an editor, depending on the spreadsheet, I would possibly import the content into MS Word, where I would do routine checks, but make any changes directly in the relevant cell in the spreadsheet.

My job is UK English but I want -ize endings. What should I do?

When you create a job, you are asked to choose the version of English. Wordy currently supports UK, US, Canadian and Australian English, although we mainly see UK and US English jobs. If you choose British English, your editor will edit accordingly (centre, colour, catalyse, criminalise, etc.), in contrast to American English (center, color, catalyze, criminalize, etc.). For more details of the differences, see, for example, Wikipedia.

However, traditionally, UK English was written with -ize endings. Some publishers prefer those endings, and they are the endings recommended by the Oxford English Dictionary. If you search for “specialise” in the premium version of the OED, it takes you to “specialize”:

So, if you want British English but -ize endings (or some other variant of spelling, hyphenation, punctuation, etc.), please say so in the brief to your editor.

If you have a more comprehensive set of guidelines, please add a house style, which is under the advanced options on the form to create a job.

These options should address your concerns. If not, please drop an email to support@wordy.com, contact live chat or post me a message.

Choosing an editor and creating a team

First up, you don’t need to choose an editor. When you create a job, it goes into a queue and a suitable editor will claim it when they are free. Most often you’ll get a good experience. Sometimes, though, you won’t because the editor wasn’t in tune with what you want, because they didn’t have the right background or for some other reason.

Wordy has over a hundred editors. They have a wide range of experience and degrees in various subjects (see below), so we almost certainly have an editor or two who is right for you. While saying that, editing, given the elusive nature of English grammar, is somewhat subjective. You may find that one editor works the way you like while another doesn’t.

If you are new to Wordy, I recommend that you go with the flow and let different editors work on your jobs. That may work well for you or it may not. You may not like how some editors work, whereas you may be really pleased with what others can do to your material.

There are various ways you can manage who can edit your documents.

First, you can block editors. Blocked editors can’t see your jobs and can’t work on them. This is the simplest solution, and it still gives you access to the large pool of Wordy editors.

Next, you can add a comment to your job, such as “Reserved for Jonathan”. Our editors will respect your wishes and leave the job for the named editor. But what if Jonathan isn’t immediately available? The job will sit there indefinitely. You may find that after some hours, other editors drop by and leave a note asking if they can claim it. If you’re happy to wait for the named editor to become available, then you can add a note saying so. Otherwise, you could open the job up by adding a second message. The downside is that once an editor has seen the original comment stating that the job is reserved, they won’t necessarily go back and see a later message making it open, so you could cancel the job (which refunds your Wordy account) and create a new job with no “reserved for” message. With such jobs, it can be useful sending your preferred editor a message through a previous job they have done for you to ask about their availability.

The other option is to create a team. Teams can be locked or unlocked. If the team is locked, only editors in the team can see your jobs and claim them. If it is unlocked, the team members will see your job first. If none of them claims it, the job will be opened up (I think it’s after 45 minutes), and all other editors will be able to see it (except blocked editors, of course).

The big disadvantage of a locked job is if none of your editors are available within your time frame, especially if you have a small team. You can check their availability individually by sending them messages through previous jobs they have done for you.

If you create a team, I recommend leaving it unlocked and blocking editors you prefer not to work with.

Below is a list of some of the subjects that our editors have degrees in. Note that most editors will work on more than one subject. Someone with experience of economics, for example, may be comfortable working on material related to finance, business, sociology and so on. I have degrees in physics and maths, but I also specialise in subjects such as IT, electronics, mechanical engineering, astronomy and the like. I’ve also worked extensively on fiction, resumes, emails and many other things. The same is true for all our editors, so don’t put too much emphasis on their qualifications.

• anthropology
• biochemistry
• biology
• business management
• chemistry
• classics
• communications
• computer science
• creative writing
• ecology
• economics
• economic history
• education
• engineering
• English
• film studies
• fine arts in graphic design
• gender studies
• graphic design
• history
• history of art
• history of science
• information systems engineering
• international studies and political science
• journalism
• jurisprudence
• law
• liberal arts
• library and information science
• linguistics
• literature
• literary translation
• marketing
• mass communications
• maths
• music
• neuropsychology
• neuroscience
• philosophy
• physics
• political science
• PPE
• psychology
• science and technology journalism
• social sciences
• social work
• sociology
• theatre arts
• writing and publishing

Help! My editor really messed up

There can be a number of reasons for this:

• The download failed.
• The upload failed.
• Your editor did not have the right experience for the job.
• You uploaded the wrong document.
• Your editor uploaded the wrong document.
• Your expectations were out of sync with what Wordy does.
• Your brief was unclear, so what your editor thought you wanted was not what you wanted.
• Your text was impenetrable and your editor did a got job of turning it into readable prose even if the intended meaning has totally changed.
• Your editor was experiencing life: their cat got eaten by a shark, they just got diagnosed with cancer, their became a born-again Christian, …
• Your editor is an idiot.
• Whatever

So what do you do now?

First, don’t panic because we have plenty of other editors and we also offer a moneyback guarantee. Jobs can also be cancelled, which refunds your Wordy account, so you have several options.

Start by sending your editor a message. The main thing is to be specific. Don’t just tell them that they messed up. Tell them how they messed up. (“It is UK English but the brief says to use -ize endings in words like ‘criminalize’. Can you change it all back?”)

Then give your editor a chance to respond, either with a message or a new version of the edited document. They may have a valid reason for what they did. They may have misread the brief. Often you will find that this approach works well, and everyone lives happily ever after.

If your editor is being awkward or taking too long (taking into account time zones), you can ask for a re-edit, which forces the editor to respond. In terms of workflow, this transfers the job back to them, which means that you can’t cancel it until the editor responds. The editor can then respond by delivering the job again or by cancelling it. Your editor will cancel the job if they feel that they are no longer the right person for it. Editors don’t get paid for cancelled jobs, so they are generally reluctant to cancel. There’s advice on what to do if your editor cancels the job here. If it is cancelled to the queue, another editor will have the chance to claim it. However, note that the message dialogue may taint the job so that another editor will be unwilling to take a risk on it. If the job is cancelled to you, your Wordy account will be refunded. In that case, cancel the job yourself and create another job with the same document and brief, possibly revised in light of the original editor’s comments, if any.

If your job is urgent and your editor is taking too long to respond, then try the following. First, quickly review the document and the brief. Are they ok? If not, make some changes. Then, block the editor, and create a new job with the document and the brief. This means that another editor can work on your job. See how that goes. You may have to cancel one job later, ask for a re-edit or have to claim a refund because the same job has been done twice.

To claim based on the moneyback guarantee, send an email to support@wordy.com, preferably with a link to the job. Explain what went wrong and how you tried to get things resolved.

If you need more advice, feel free to get in touch.