The Chicago Manual of Style Launches in PerfectIt 5
10 August, 2021
By Daniel Heuman
Today, The Chicago Manual of Style moves into proofreading software for the first time. I’m delighted to say that PerfectIt will be its platform.
Whether the Manual is part of your work or the basis of your organization’s house style, The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt will give you a new level of confidence in the text you deliver.
Important for Every Professional Document
Style guides are essential for editing. They provide the conventions, preferences, and rules that make text consistent and give organizations and publications the ability to write with one voice. For 115 years, The Chicago Manual of Style has provided the guidance that editors, writers, academics, and businesses use as the basis for their writing. However, all style guides have the same fundamental challenge: you need to know what to search for.
It doesn’t matter if you’re using a style guide in its print or online form. Style guides ask that you identify possible errors and look them up. It takes time to learn the rules. Even once you’ve learned to identify a potential problem, you can still have trouble remembering what the style should be. With The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt, an approach that hasn’t changed for over a century is suddenly easier!
The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt searches your text for errors. It alerts you to issues you might not have spotted. And it provides you with instant access to the time-tested guidance of the Manual without leaving Microsoft Word.
Helping People to Make the Best Editing Decision
PerfectIt’s core philosophy is that people make the best editing decisions and they always will. We build technology to help people edit faster and better. The approach to The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt is true to that in every way.
Algorithms will never understand the beauty, complexity, and variety of great copy. So The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt doesn’t seek to overhaul what you write. Instead, it finds examples in your text to teach the principles of Chicago Style and improve your writing and editing.
A Product for Businesses of All Sizes
If the last time you heard the words “The Chicago Manual of Style” was when you were writing an essay or dissertation in college, then you may not realize how much more the Manual has to offer. Our initial focus is on the preferences and style and usage guidance that underlie editing decisions and form the basis of house styles throughout the business world.
While we plan to add citation capabilities in time, our first release demonstrates the importance of The Chicago Manual of Style for all users. In particular, it provides the sections of the Manual that are the basis of corporate house styles and that can help improve writing in businesses of all sizes, from independent editors to Fortune 500 companies.
PerfectIt gives editors the ability to build house styles and preferences on top of the preferences of The Chicago Manual of Style. So it’s easy to combine and customize the Manual’s guidance with industry- or client-specific choices. Editors can check the preferences of their author or publisher. Proposal writers can check the preferences of a client or agency. Technical writers can check preferred terminology. Marketers can check branding. In this way, PerfectIt and The Chicago Manual of Style combine to identify errors that matter in your organization but that no spelling or grammar checker will find.
Free for Subscribers
We’re introducing The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt as a free benefit for subscribers. If you already have an individual subscription to CMOS Online and to PerfectIt, there’s no additional cost of any kind. Click to log in and link your CMOS Online account to PerfectIt.
If you’re a PerfectIt subscriber but don’t yet have a CMOS Online subscription then you can sign up now.
PerfectIt 5 Is Available Now
We’ve updated PerfectIt for Windows and PerfectIt Cloud with the new capabilities for The Chicago Manual of Style. If you have a PerfectIt subscription then your update is included.
PerfectIt 5 includes:
- The Chicago Manual of Style for current CMOS Online subscribers
- Improvements to PerfectIt’s checks for spelling variations, accents and abbreviations
- Updates to built-in styles for UK, US, Australian, and Canadian spelling as well as European Union, United Nations, WHO, GPO, and American Legal Style
- Search added to the Style Sheet Editor
- Faster checking, especially in the checks of list punctuation and capitalization
PerfectIt Cloud
You're all set! Simply run Perfect PerfectIt Cloud and all the latest changes are included.
Windows Edition
Click to download the latest version. Or click for more detailed instructions.
A Product That Continues to Evolve
When I designed the first version of PerfectIt, I never imagined a moment like this. Working with the University of Chicago Press to deliver The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt is one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever been involved with. And far from feeling complete, it has only helped me to see how much more we can do. The team at Chicago have given us challenges that will keep us busy for years to come. And those are on top of other major changes we can’t wait to bring you in the months and years ahead. The move into proofreading software by The Chicago Manual of Style is only just beginning!