Word Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 14 Insert Placeholder Text

When designing a template or experimenting with
formatting, sometimes you just need textany textto play
around with.

To quickly and easily fill a paragraph,
a page, or an entire document with text, just type the following on a
blank line in any open document and press Enter:

=rand( )

By default, you get three paragraphs with four sentences each, as
shown in Figure 3-1. The sentence used depends on
the language of your version of Word. The English version uses
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy
dog," which happens to use every letter in the
alphabet.

Figure 3-1. Word's placeholder text

If you need more or less than the default amount of text, provide
numerical values to the rand() function:

=rand(paragraphs, sentences)

Both arguments are optional, but if you want to specify the number of
sentences, you must also specify the
number of paragraphs.

This little trick works only if you select ToolsAutoCorrect Options, click the AutoCorrect tab, and check the "Replace text as you type" box.

3.2.1 Make Your Own Placeholder Text with AutoCorrect

If foxes and dogs aren't for you,
you
can create your own placeholder text as an AutoText entry.

The template on which you based the current document stores all new AutoText entries. If you did not explicitly choose a template, the Normal template will store the new entry, and it will then be available in all your documents.

Type your placeholder text, select it, and choose
InsertAutoTextNew. Choose a name for the
placeholder text, as shown in Figure 3-2. You
should choose a name that you won't likely type for
any other reason.

Figure 3-2. Choose a name for your placeholder AutoText entry that won't likely come up elsewhere in a document

Now whenever you type the name of the AutoText entry, Word will offer
to insert your placeholder text, as shown in Figure 3-3.

Figure 3-3. As you type the name of your AutoText entry, Word will offer to replace it with the predefined text