Thread: Word curiosity corner

You probably know that typing, on a new line, =rand(x,y) followed by Enter, produces x paragraphs each consisting of y sentences of 'The quick brown fox ... '. In Word 2007, the fox doesn't appear - you get sample text beginning with 'On the Insert tab, the galleries include items .. .'. You can, however, get the fox jumping again with =rand.old(x,y). Alternatively, should you want something more erudite, =lorem(x,y) produces some Latin instead.



In the tradition of such things, this 'Latin' is largely nonsense, as you'll see if you feed it into an online translator. In all versions of Word, Autocorrect must be enabled for this to work - make sure the 'Replace text as you type' is checked in Autocorrect options. In 2007, you'll find this under Office Button, Word Options, Proofing.

There is, of course, nothing to stop you creating your own dummy text in any version of Word, should you tire of the fox and the dog. Type or paste the text, then select it. Go to Insert, Autotext, New and give it a name - or accept the suggested name (see screen 6). Click OK, and the text will be stored. To retrieve it, either go to Insert, Autotext, Autotext ... then select it from the list, or more simply, type the name you gave and press F3, You can't specify the number of sentences or paragraphs this way, but you can hit Ctrl & Y to repeat the insertion.