Medical Writing Software for Medical Writers In this issue of Medical Writing

Volume 23, Issue 1 - Software for Medical Writers

In this issue of Medical Writing

Some of you might remember the old days when writing was done with a typewriter, spreadsheets were big pieces of paper, and slides were printed on film. Thanks to computers, these are old memories, and we can all be much more productive. Software and operating systems continue to advance rapidly, supposedly making our lives as writers easier, but we often do not have time to keep up with the changes and learn all the ins and outs of new software or the most recent versions.

This issue starts with several articles on the Microsoft Office® suite. Some may use alternative software, but in our business, Office is the standard. Office has many quirks and secret functions, and learning about them can help simplify tasks and avoid problems. Therefore, we begin with several articles on Office software. Peter Aitken and Maxine Okazakion, Alistair Reeves, and Alexander Nürnberg describe quirks and secrets of Word®, and Raquel Billiones discusses using templates in Word. Diarmuid De Faoite follows with an article describing the efficient and correct use of the oft-maligned PowerPoint®. Also, Daniel Kraus describes his excellent – and free! – add-in for Excel called Daniel's XL Toolbox, which enables medical writers to store data in one place, eliminating the need to use separate tools for the analysis and presentation of data.

More and more, pharmaceutical companies are going to specialised software to share and track documents. The most common of these is Datavision™. We therefore asked Russell Traynor and Thomas Gegeny to describe Datavision, what it can do, and what medical writers need to know.

Several following articles summarise different software tools. The first of these, by Laura Collada Ali, focuses on software for translators. Jesslynn Ooi and colleagues then describe graphing software, and Shirin Ghodke provides a list of software tools that have proven to be useful to medical writers. Finally, Julie Courraud explains the features and advantages of Zotero, an open-source reference manager.

 

Also in this issue…

Françoise Salager-Meyer presents the first in a two-part series on English for Medical Purposes, in which she summarises the research conducted on English-medium written medical discourse. Laura Collada Ali continues her Profile series by recounting her interview with Karina Ruth Tabacinic on some fundamental concerns of medical translation. Finally, Derek Ho tells about his experience as a first-timer at the 2013 EMWA conference in Barcelona.

 

New regular feature – News from the EMA

This issue of Medical Writing includes a new regular feature, News from the EMA, which is the result of EMWA's first steps towards establishing a collaboration with the EMA. This new section will initially include reprints of key press releases and communications with the EMA, but we hope that it will eventually become a mechanism for the EMA to communicate directly with EMWA members.

Your editorial team

Medical Writing has evolved into a collaborative team project. Stephen Gilliver has been promoted to Co-editor, and we now have five Associate Editors: Joselita Salita, Raquel Billiones, Anuradha Alahari, Shirin Ghodke, and Barbara Grossman. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the editorial staff for their excellent work and enthusiasm. Putting this journal together would definitely not be possible without their contributions. If you are interested in becoming a member of the editorial staff or contributing to the journal in any way, write to me at editor@emwa.org.

Happy reading!

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Articles

In this issue of Medical Writing
Message from the President
EMWA social media team
News from the EMA
Taming Microsoft Word®
The secrets of Microsoft Word®. Part I – ‘Find and Replace’ and en-dashes
Organising the review process in Microsoft Word®
Document templates for medical writers
Getting more out of PowerPoint®
Consolidated data analysis and presentation using an open-source add-in for the Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet software
Datavision™ – What do medical writers need to know?
Software for translators
Graphing software for medical writers
A medical writer's must-have software
Zotero: A free and open-source reference manager
Origin and development of English for Medical Purposes. Part I: Research on written medical discourse
Profile: An interview with Karina Ruth Tabacinic on some fundamental concerns of medical translation
A first-timer's perspective on the 2013 EMWA conference in Barcelona
English Grammar and Style
Regulatory Writing
The Webscout
Medical Communications
In the Bookstores
Manuscript Writing
Out On Our Own

Links

The Write Stuff Archive Contact Instructions for Authors Article Template (Word) Journal Policies

Editoral Board

Editor-in-Chief

Raquel Billiones

Co-Editors

Evguenia Alechine

Jonathan Pitt

Managing Editor

Victoria White

Associate Editors

Anuradha Alahari

Jennifer Bell

Nicole Bezuidenhout

Claire Chang

Barbara Grossman

Sarah Milner

John Plant

Sampoorna Rappaz

Amy Whereat

Section Editors

Daniela Kamir

AI/Automation

Jennifer Bell

Biotechnology

Nicole Bezuidenhout 

Digital Communication

Somsuvro Basu

EMWA News 

Ana Sofia Correia 

Gained in Translation

Ivana Turek

Getting Your Foot in the Door

Wendy Kingdom / Amy Whereat

Good Writing Practice

Alison McIntosh 

In the Bookstores

Maria Kołtowska-Häggström

Lingua Franca and Beyond

Maddy Dyer

Publications

Lisa Chamberlain-James

Medical Communications/Writing for Patients

Payal Bhatia

Medical Devices

Evguenia Alechine

My First Medical Writing

Anuradha Alahari

News from the EMA

Adriana Rocha

Out on Our Own

Tiziana von Bruchhausen

Pharmacovigilance

Clare ChangZuo Yen Lee 

Regulatory Matters

Sam Hamilton

Regulatory Public Disclosure

Claire Gudex

Teaching Medical Writing

Louisa Ludwig-Begall / Sarah Kabani

The Crofter: Sustainable Communications

Louisa Marcombes

Veterinary Writing

Editors Emeritus

Elise Langdon-Neuner

Phil Leventhal

Layout Designer

Chris Monk