Scores of changes have been introduced in the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). You can find a list of all the changes here.
PerfectIt includes a style sheet for the Chicago Manual of Style, but it has not been updated for the 18th edition, so I decided to give a few examples of how we can get PerfectIt to apply some of the new rules. (For more examples of advanced methods to enforce style rules, don’t miss my PerfectIt masterclass, which you can sign up for here.)
Written instructions are provided below the video.
Before adding these rules, I recommend you create a copy of the CMOS style sheet. You might want to call it something like “Chicago plus my edits”.
1
New CMOS rule 7.96: “The word ebook is now closed rather than hyphenated.”
PerfectIt’s existing CMOS style sheet included a rule to ensure a hyphen was used. Under “Always Find”, go to the “Search” box (bottom-left) and enter “e-book” (without the quotation marks.
Notice that the old checks were incorrectly added as “Preferred spelling” checks. They should have been entered as “Hyphenation of words” checks. In any case, we need to delete them, as they are now obsolete.
Click on the first line containing “e-book”, so that the row is highlighted in blue, then click on “Delete” four times, to delete the four entries.
Next, add the following simple rules to replace them (basic rules like these are covered in my “Introduction to PerfectIt” course):
When PerfectIt is running the check for: Hyphenation of words
PerfectIt should warn if it finds the phrase: e-book
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: ebook
Instructions: The word ebook is now closed rather than hyphenated.
When PerfectIt is running the check for: Hyphenation of words
PerfectIt should warn if it finds the phrase: e-books
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: ebooks
Instructions: The word ebook is now closed rather than hyphenated.
You can also add the capitalization rules to ensure that the initial e is not capitalized (unless it’s at the start of a sentence):
When PerfectIt is running the check for: Capitalization of phrases
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: Ebook
Instructions: The word “ebook” does not take an initial cap.
You can also add the capitalization rules to ensure that the initial e is not capitalized (unless it’s at the start of a sentence):
When PerfectIt is running the check for: Capitalization of phrases
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: Ebooks
Instructions: The word “ebook” does not take an initial cap.
2
New CMOS rule 6.85: “An en dash rather than a hyphen should be used between the names of two or more people used as a compound modifier before a noun (e.g., “Ali–Frazier match”; “Epstein–Barr virus”).”
PerfectIt’s existing CMOS style sheet did not include such a check for the old rule (with a hyphen), so there is no check to replace.
Simply add the following check in Wildcards:
When PerfectIt is running the check for: Wildcard Find and Replace
PerfectIt should warn if it finds the phrase: (<[A-Z][a-z]@)-([A-Z][a-z]@>)
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: \1–\2
Instructions: Use an en dash, not a hyphen, between the names of two or more people used as a compound modifier before a noun (e.g., “Ali–Frazier match”; “Epstein–Barr virus”).
3
New CMOS rule 7.86: “An apostrophe is now used before the “s” to form the plural of a capital letter.”
Again, PerfectIt’s existing CMOS style sheet did not include such a check for the old rule (with a hyphen), so there is no check to replace.
Simply add the following check in Wildcards:
When PerfectIt is running the check for: Wildcard Find and Replace
PerfectIt should warn if it finds the phrase: <([A-Z])s>
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: \1’s
Instructions: Use an apostrophe before the “s” to form the plural of a capital letter.
Note the “Except after” rules, designed to prevent, for example, the words “As” and “They” from being flagged when they appear at the beginning of a sentence.
If you want to test the above rules, you can use the dummy text at the bottom of this post. With rule number 3, notice the false positives if you don’t include the “Except after” rule.
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Is there something you’d like to have checked in your documents but you don’t know how? Leave a comment below, and I’ll do my best to help.
Dummy text for testing the above rules (paste this dummy text into Word then run PerfectIt with the style sheet you edited):
This is a dummy text for testing the rules described above. First, I’m going to mention an e-book. Then I’m going to write about the Duckworth-Lewis method. As Messieurs Duckworth and Lewis are so smart, they must have got straight As at school. Is that not true?
