My writing style: define, apply, manage

What this is about

A writing style is a short instruction describing how you write: tone, salutation, sentence length, terminology. You can apply it to any selected text so the result sounds like you and not like a generic text machine.

Your writing styles live in your Logiks account, not on this machine. Once created, they are available in Word, Outlook, the app and chat – on another device too.

Where to find it

Task menu ▸ My writing style, with three entries:

• Apply my writing style
• Define my writing style
• Manage my writing styles

Defining a writing style

The add-in first shows you what is about to happen – five steps:

1. If you have text selected, it is used as a writing sample.
2. You choose further samples from the Word documents currently open – one, all or none.
3. You can tell the analysis what to pay particular attention to. The field may be left empty.
4. You see the analysis and the style instruction derived from it, and can change both.
5. The result is saved in your account.

With no selection and no chosen document there is nothing to analyse; the add-in says so and stops.

Good writing samples

The analysis is only as good as what you give it:

• Use text you wrote yourself. A document five people contributed to produces a blended style.
• Use one kind of text at a time. Your file notes and your customer emails are two different styles – create two.
• More text beats a single paragraph, but ten pages add nothing over three.

In step four you see the style instruction in plain words. Read it and cut what does not fit – that text is what gets sent along every time afterwards.

Applying a writing style

Select text and choose Apply my writing style. A picker of your styles appears; the selected text is rewritten in that style.

Without a selection nothing happens – the feature needs text.

Managing writing styles

Manage my writing styles opens the manager. Your list on the left, the fields Name, Description and Style instruction on the right.

• New creates an empty style you write yourself – no analysis involved.
• Set as default marks a style so it is preselected. It carries the suffix (default) in the list.
• Delete removes a style after a confirmation.
• Refresh reloads the list from the server.

Below the style instruction there is a character counter. The guideline is 4,000 characters; longer instructions are saved, but the notice tells you that you are over the recommendation. Short and concrete works better than long and general anyway.

The built-in starter style

One style carries the suffix (preset). It ships with the product and cannot be edited. Make my own copy gives you an editable version of it.

When the list will not load

• "Your writing styles could not be loaded from the server. Showing the last known list; changes are not possible right now." – you can carry on working but cannot save anything. Check the connection and try again later.
• "Your writing styles could not be loaded." – usually the sign-in has expired. Sign in again.

Both are connection problems; your saved styles are not lost by them.