FileCleaner

I found a software program that saves me hundreds of hours of tedious work. It's a Microsoft Word add-in called FileCleaner. More about that in a bit, but first, let me tell you what sent me on the search that finally unearthed FileCleaner.

I've always archived my work in PDF format using Adobe Acrobat. Doing so has never done anything except cause me headaches. Take my advice, don't archive with Adobe Acrobat if you ever intend on editing or tweaking the material later on. Work archived in PDF format is not easily edited. It requires numerous steps that leave me exhausted. In particular, when Acrobat converts a file to Word, it creates a formatting mess that requires tedious work before any of the actual creative work can begin.

I'm not writing this to bash Adobe Acrobat, though. It has its uses. I simply recommend you not use it to archive work you may want to edit later on.

FileCleaner is what this article is about. Not only is FileCleaner useful to anyone who has the Adobe Acrobat problems I've talked about, it comes in handy for anyone who needs to clean up common errors in Word documents.

Are you an editor who receives manuscripts on a regular basis? Are you putting together an anthology and want to make sure the formatting is consistent and proper on every manuscript you receive? Are you a writer who's preparing your own book for self publication or submitting a manuscript to a publisher?

You need FileCleaner.

I found FileCleaner when I reached my breaking point with manually handling my formatting woes. I downloaded the 45-day trial and used it for a huge project I was working on. I was able to handle my massive project in record time, and I continued to use FileCleaner on other projects. When my trial ran out, I immediately purchased FileCleaner, knowing I wouldn't be able to do without it.

The cost of FileCleaner is $29.95. I felt privileged to pay the money. Not only did it help me do a week's worth of tedious work in just a few hours, the software is so flawless abd so useful that I feel as if it were created for me personally.

FileCleaner is a Microsoft Word add-in that puts a menu and a toolbar right into the Word interface. It can do several things for you with just the touch of a button. You can use it to delete wild tabs, clean up extra spaces around returns (my favorite part), fix punctuation with italics and quotation marks (make it all consistent and proper), and change straight quotes to the print-ready curly style.

But wait, folks, there's more. You can turn double hypens into em dashes and numeric hyphens into en dashes, turn underlined words into italics, and format your ellipses correctly. It even standardizes font, paragraph, and style formatting.

There's more, but I'll let you discover the rest of it for yourself. You can download a trial of FileCleaner at The Editorium. While you're there, be sure to grab the Author Tools add-in that The Editorium has been kind enough to offer free of charge. They could easily sell this set of style-formatting tools, but they've opted to give it away. Download Author Tools, then show your appreciation by purchasing FileCleaner. The Editorium is a small company creating quality writing software at a reasonable price -- just the sort of effort that should be supported.

One final note. Jack Lyon, the man behind The Editorium, got right back to me when I had a question pertaining to FileCleaner. This is important. When you purchase software, it's nice to know the company behind it is truly behind it.

Do yourself a big favor and go get FileCleaner. It will be one of the best, most useful writing-software purchases you will ever make.