Word Hacks [Electronic resources]

Andrew Savikas

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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.