How do I change verb tense from present to past in a lengthy docu.

[Guest]

I am working on my master's thesis and need to change the verb tense in my
paper from present tense to past tense now that I have completed my classroom
research. Is there a way to automatically have this done or do I need to go
through word by word and change this?

 

[Jay Freedman]

I am working on my master's thesis and need to change the verb tense
in my paper from present tense to past tense now that I have
completed my classroom research. Is there a way to automatically have
this done or do I need to go through word by word and change this?

There are so many irregular verbs in English that I wouldn't trust any
machine conversion.

You can speed up the job somewhat by using Replace to change some of the
common verbs -- e.g., change "is" to "was", "are" to "were" -- but use Find
Next and Replace rather than Replace All so you can see each suggested
replacement and skip it if it's inappropriate.

Be careful that you don't change tenses in direct quotations from other
works.