2 Nifty Features in Microsoft Edge Browser for Self-Editing

Good editing separates great writing from mediocre. Your first writing is always a draft and it will take many rewrites, edits, and some more edits to make your story shine and publishable. That is why writers often spend more time editing their stories than writing them.

To be frank, for me self-editing is like slaying a dragon, which involves relying on editing services like Grammarly and looking for ways to make my editing more robust. Fortunately, I’ve found two useful features in the Microsoft Edge browser hidden in their immersive reader. The reader gives a seamless, clutter-free reading experience, but it’s also helpful for self-editing.

These two features will perform the following tasks.

1. Highlight Words Based on Parts of Speech.

The immersive reader has Grammar Tools with toggles to highlight words based on parts of speech, like turning on adverb toggle will highlight all the adverbs in your writing.

You can use Grammar Tools to improve your style and writing. Focusing on parts of speech has leveled up my editing skills, and you can reap the same benefits. I use it to spot unwanted repetitions and squash unnecessary adjectives as overuse of adjectives muddles the writing. While I am at it, I remove adverbs from the face of the story, using stronger verbs instead.

Interestingly, the highlighter is unique to Edge browser as I didn’t find its Chrome alternatives. iA Writer has this feature but it is a paid application.

2. Listen to Writing Using Text-to-Speech

The immersive reader has Read Aloud — a built-in text-to-speech feature to have the computer read you your writing. It can be customized to use a different accent or adjust the reading speed.

Being a pure listener of your story helps in editing: You can focus on the sound and rhythm of the writing. Good writing sounds right, not bulky, and sentences have a natural flow to them. Also, it allows listening to your story from a reader’s perspective, which helps in understanding how readers will interpret the sentences.

If you want Chrome alternatives of text-to-speech, read Michelle Woo’s article Why You Should Use a Text-to-Speech App to Read You Your Stories. But I prefer Edge. Its built-in reader sounds more natural than the Chrome options.

How to Access Read Aloud and Grammar Tools?

Read Aloud and Grammar tools are available on the Windows and Mac versions of Edge. To use these features for your Vocal stories:

1. Launch Microsoft Edge.
2. Open your story in Vocal editor.
3. Make sure to save your draft on Vocal before moving to the next step. This is crucial as any unsaved progress will be lost when Immersive reader is turned on.
4. Hold the left mouse button to select all your writing, press right-click, and select Open in Immersive reader.
5. Once in Immersive reader, use Read Aloud for text-to-speech, or Grammar Tools for parts of speech highlighter.

Note: You cannot edit in immersive reader. Like Michelle Woo, I take notes when listening to my writing or highlighting parts of speech in it, and incorporating those notes later. I suggest that you do the same. Also, Andriod and iOS versions of Edge are not suitable to perform the editing tasks.

So there you have it: two free features in Edge browser to strengthen your editing. They’ve helped me to self-edit my stories and thus improve my writing. Highlighting parts of speech gives an opportunity to spot evil adverbs and kill weak adjectives. Similarly, the text-to-speech helps to know how readers will interpret the sentences and how the words will sound.

When everything sounds and feels good, press publish. Take a deep breath. You did a great job!