Sometimes, when you get in a coding hole, you can get caught up in typing out tedious code without thinking about more efficient ways to accomplish your goal. In particular, when you’re just starting out with a language and are figuring out really roundabout solutions to problems, you might just put your head down and type out everything you have to. Rather than making more work for yourself, let Microsoft Word give you a hand.
Find And Replace
The main way that Microsoft Word can help you save time is with find and replace. For example, let’s say you have a chunk of code that you need to copy and paste with slight modifications. This might involve changing every instance of “player” to “opponent” so that you can use the code that tracks your player’s code to instead track your opponent’s code. If you’re in a coding hole, you might copy and paste that chunk and then manually change every instance that needs to be changed.
Instead of doing that, you should take advantage of Microsoft Word’s find and replace function. First, copy the chunk of code in question from your text editor and paste it into Microsoft Word. Then, in Microsoft Word, use the Replace function. This can be found in the Home section of the ribbon, on the Editing column near the right side, where it says Replace (sandwiched in between Find and Select. From there, it’s pretty straightforward, as you just put the phrase to be replaced in “Find what” and the substitute phrase in “Replace with”. Just make sure to keep small details consistent, like capitalization and whitespace.
Your Text Editor Might Have This Feature
The text editor you’re using might actually have a similar feature built-in. For example, some editors might have a find and replace feature, but they might only work for the entire document as opposed to a certain selection. In this case, you can also quickly copy and paste the chunk of code in question into a new file in your editor. If it’s an extremely lightweight editor, it might not have any sort of feature like this at all, and in this case you can just use Microsoft Word to help you out.
Think Outside The Box
The main thing you should take away from this is to think outside the box. Instead of just trying to use brute force to get through everything, think of ways you might be able to save yourself a little bit of time and effort. You might just find out that it’s easier to use multiple programs to accomplish a task than it is to do everything within one. Happy coding!
