The biggest news in PerfectIt 6 (at least for style manual geeks like us) is the launch of the Microsoft Writing Style Guide in PerfectIt together with the update for The Chicago Manual of Style, 18^th Edition. We have an entirely separate article about the improvements to PerfectIt styles here. But that’s just the beginning! There’s so much more packed into this new release! We’ve worked hard to add something for everyone.

We partnered with Microsoft to introduce the Microsoft Writing Style Guide in PerfectIt. It’s available to all users in Perfect 6 and PerfectIt Cloud at no additional cost. 

And that’s not the only new style manual included in our new release! PerfectIt 6 now includes The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition. CMOS Online Subscribers get access to rule changes and revisions with the upgrade to PerfectIt 6. 

PerfectIt is an add-in for Microsoft Word (and now PowerPoint). If you didn’t know that by now, what have you been doing all this time? Given this, it would make sense that we would collaborate with Microsoft to develop a PerfectIt style based on the Microsoft Writing Style Guide (MWSG). And guess what? We have!

But let's be completely honest – keeping up with the intricacies of style and grammar can feel like a full-time job. And it is – it's The Chicago Manual of Style’s job.

Here are some of the biggest additions, revisions, and fine-tuning that we’ve undertaken over the last few months to bring PerfectIt up to date with the release of the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.

Edits of texts by multilingual writers can be heavy, depending on the author’s level of English proficiency. It’s easy to misunderstand their intention or unintentionally erode their voice through personal biases or assumptions. It’s a delicate balancing act between preserving the diversity of multilingual writers’ expression and experience, and ensuring that writing is clear, relevant, and accessible for the audience. This article explores how AI can help editors working with multilingual authors.

Many people think of PowerPoint as just for boardrooms and classrooms. But stealth PowerPoint is everywhere. Here are just eight of the places you’ll see stealth PowerPoints.

I've been thinking about the future of editing. Many people have concerns about what AI might mean for the world (and I have my reservations too). But if there’s one thing that developing Draftsmith (our new AI product) has shown, it’s that AI can’t replace editors. So when it comes to the future of editing, I’m optimistic and hopeful. As we plan for our next phase of Draftsmith, I want to share that vision. Here are my eight predictions.

You know about Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, right? It’s not just a pizza; it’s an experience with its thick crust, high sides, epic amount of sauce, cheese, and pantry-full of toppings. Well, guess what: pizza isn’t the only thing that comes in Chicago style.

Love it or hate it – OK, sorta like it or truly detest it – PowerPoint is essential in the modern boardroom, and the modern lecture hall, and the modern classroom, and the modern lab, and the modern wedding, and the modern funeral, and, for all we know, probably some modern bedrooms. You are almost certainly going to have to make a PowerPoint presentation from time to time. So here, as our gift to you – and, more importantly, our gift to your audiences – are seven mistakes many people make when creating and delivering PowerPoint presentations. You should strive to avoid them.

While writers may find solace in a scenic stroll by some daffodils, or a day off, editors are often trying to improve on minutes. And, let’s face it: editors are already linguistic ninjas. How can they possibly do better? Here are a few strategies to keep the editorial juices flowing.

The ethics of AI is one of the most important questions of our time. If you’re looking for great insight into that question, you’re in the wrong place! At Intelligent Editing, we’re not AI ethicists. We don’t spend our days researching the rights and wrongs of AI. We haven’t studied how the law needs to adapt to changes in technology.

The first time that a customer told me they wanted PerfectIt for PowerPoint, I tried not to laugh. Our Chief Engineer and I joked about it. We even drew up a specification document for what it would look like. No matter what slide you ran it on, it would simply say “Use fewer words”.

However, the requests for PerfectIt for PowerPoint kept coming. We track every single request (no matter how odd it seems to us). We stopped joking when we reached five. At ten, we knew we had to understand more and we started researching it properly. At fifty requests, including from some of the biggest companies in the world, we started development.

Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, famously said in 1977, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”

The first time you see an artificial intelligence (AI) product like ChatGPT take on an editing task, its suggestions will amaze you. Its editing is impressive. Then the fear sets in.

One of the joys of working on PerfectIt is the engagement of our users. I love the requests you send, ideas you bring, and the problems you ask us to solve. But what I think makes PerfectIt stand out and makes it so useful is that it doesn’t do everything. We design for professionals.

From the outside it must look foolish. Is there really an editing software product that is not only avoiding AI, but actively marketing itself as not including AI? There is. And we’re proud to be that company.

The speed of today’s technological changes may be unprecedented, but the essence of adaptation remains the same as it has throughout history. The key lies in picking the best tool for each specific task to improve overall outcomes.

There’s no one right way to run your business, only the way that works for you at any given moment. It’s all trial and error. Efficiency isn’t about what you do so much as doing it the same way every time.

While not everyone may have been aware of or effected by it, we recently had an outage of PerfectIt Cloud. Now, outages are the worst. You already know that. They mean you can’t access the service you paid for. And they often hit right before a deadline.