Using Clean Copy in PERRLA's Word Add-in

The latest updates to the PERRLA Add-in for Word and PERRLA Online have a new button in their ribbon. It lets you create a "Clean Copy" of your paper before you turn it in.

What is a Clean Copy

When using PERRLA, some elements in your paper are generated inside Content Control boxes (like references and citations). PERRLA uses these Content Control boxes for two reasons.

First, the Content Control boxes allow us to track those format-specific elements inside your paper so we know exactly where all your references and citations are. This lets us know how to format some location specific citations and references.

Second, the text in Content Controls must always be formatted in a specific way for the paper's format. Over the 25 years we've been helping students, we've seen students accidentally mess up their APA & MLA formatting many times. By locking the text in the body of the paper, we can ensure that your formatting is always correct for those items.

A Clean Copy of a paper is a duplicate version of your paper that has the exact same content, but we've stripped out all of the PERRLA elements like Content Controls.

Why create a Clean Copy of a paper

Creating a Clean Copy of a paper before you turn it in has a number of benefits. First, the removed Content Controls make it easier for your professor to leave you comments and feedback. Second, it lets you create a finalized version of your paper that is different from your draft. This is super helpful in case you've ever *accidentally* turned in the wrong version of your paper. Last, if you're planning on making more changes to your paper after getting feedback on it, having a Clean Copy lets you keep the working draft separate from the version you submit for edits.

How to create a Clean Copy

Creating a Clean Copy of your paper is easy.

1. Open your PERRLA paper
2. In the PERRLA ribbon, click the Create Clean Copy icon
3. In the side-panel, click Create a clean copy

That's it!

If you're using Microsoft Word, we'll open the Clean Copy as a new document – separate from your original PERRLA version.

If you're using PERRLA Online, the Clean Copy of your paper will be downloaded to you computer as a Microsoft Word file.

Pro-tip: Make sure you save your Clean Copy with a different name from your original paper!