Microsoft Word provides a useful feature to repeat text in a document. This can be helpful when creating forms, directories or other list-style documents where the same set of information needs to be repeated over and over again in different places within the document. Here are two easy ways to use the repeating text function in Microsoft Word.

To find this function, press F3 on your keyboard

To access this function, press F3 on your keyboard. In the new window that pops up, check to see if it is highlighted and press Enter. You will now be able to type or paste your text into the top line box. Once you have typed/pasted your text into that box, choose how many times you want it repeated. In this example, 4 was selected and you can see there are now four sentences of text in four boxes below. Press Enter again and watch as those four sentences are automatically repeated three more times for a total of twelve sentences altogether! Now we just need to save our work by clicking File at the top left corner then select Save As.

When you click into one of these fields, click on the top pull-down menu

So now you have repeated text! But, if you need to change some text and not all of it, what should you do? Do not worry- Microsoft provides a way. You will want to select one of the text boxes (depending on which one you are editing), and press Ctrl+H (or Cmd+H for Macs). This will bring up a small window with an editable list of every instance of that field’s text. Once there, make your edits, then click OK. All instances will be updated with your changes! If you made too many mistakes, don’t fret- this feature can be reversed as well. Press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z for Macs) to undo any accidental edits you may have made. To revert back to the original document content, follow these steps:

1.  Click on the icon of three lines that is located at the top left corner of your document
2.  Select Undo Typing from the drop-down menu
3. Select Replace from this menu again
4.  Type out or paste over anything you may wish to replace before clicking Ok

The second option will say Repeat Field

To use this function, first highlight and select what you want to repeat from your document. Next, click on Home > Editing > Repeat. You will see a box that says Specify how many times you want to repeat the text. Enter your desired number and hit OK. Now click on ‘Edit fields’ and insert a colon (:) followed by a number that corresponds with the line where you want each instance of your highlighted text to be repeated on the page (example: :2). Click on ‘OK’. Finally, highlight your entire original selection one more time so that it is outlined in blue. Hit Ctrl+A or Cmd+A on MacOS to do this quickly. After highlighting it again, choose Edit > Copy and then paste the same text elsewhere in your document. Doing so will repeat your selected text twice as much as before!

Check Repeat Field under Description and it will then appear at the end of each sentence in your document.

Click your mouse on Format and Fields. You can then fill out any title you want, like Author, for example. Click OK. In your document, go to the word or phrase you want to use for the repeating text. Right-click on it and select Insert. Check Repeat Field under Description and click OK. Now, it will appear at the end of each sentence in your document!

Make sure to check Repeat field under Description and it will then appear at the end of each sentence in your document. Click your mouse on Format and Fields. Fill out any title you want, like Author, for example. Click OK. In your document, go to the word or phrase you want to use for the repeating text. Right-click on it and select Insert, checking Repeat field under Description and clicking OK afterwards. Now, it will appear at the end of each sentence in your document!

To do this using another field, select that field instead.

The first way is by using a text box that you can type and then stretch as needed. To do this, just click on any word, hold down the mouse button and drag over as much text as you need repeated. Once you’ve selected all of the text you want repeated, double-click where it says Text Box. Type your desired phrase or sentence inside of quotation marks and then press enter. This will repeat the phrase or sentence in the same spot where you typed it. If you don’t like how the text looks, right-click and select delete to remove it.

The second way is by selecting your desired phrases or sentences with your cursor and pressing Control+F4 at the same time. Then use arrow keys to highlight each word individually for every line until you get back to the beginning. Click outside of all highlighted words when finished so they turn from blue back into black letters.

To adjust how many times it repeats, edit the number next to times.

The first thing you’ll need to do is place your cursor where you want the text to repeat. At this point, hit Ctrl + Alt + P (or open up the Paragraphs tab from your ribbon). You’ll see two options for entering a custom value of how many times it should repeat. The second will be set at what is already there which should already be 1, so click 2 or any number of repetitions that works for you and then click OK. That’s all there is to it! It’s a great way to save time when typing out long blocks of information or even just a line.

There are also some different ways to use repeating text. One way is if you wanted to make some changes in those paragraphs while still using the same typeface and font size: highlight the paragraph(s) that you want to change with your mouse, then select ‘Keep Typing’ from the drop-down menu on the home tab. Repeat these steps for each paragraph you want to edit until everything looks just right.

Another option would be if you wanted one sentence repeated over and over again: highlight it with your mouse, right-click on it, select ‘Repeats as Single Line’ and hit Enter.

Now you can copy and paste exactly what you want without having to retype anything.

There are a few methods for repeating text in MS Word, and it’s up to you which one suits your needs best. One option is formatting your text as a block of continuous text and right-clicking on it. This will give you a list of options, including Repeat (once), Repeat, (infinite) and fill with (random word). Choosing Repeat (once) or repeat, (infinite) will copy the selected text and then paste it once or infinitely into the document wherever you want.

The same can be done by using Shift+Ctrl+R while copying your text to make a shortcut command. Another option is using Ctrl+D while copying/pasting anything to create a double line space that copies what was copied onto another line where there was originally none before. If you want random words instead of repeating exactly what was copied, use Fill with (random word).

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Danielle Steel