Paul Smith wrote: > > Thanks again to all. I just want to create a small report on about 100 > assignments of my students. To speed up this task, I imagined that I > could place a number for each item corresponding to the sub-phrase to > be inserted in the report. Since many sub-phrases are frequent, I am > looking for a solution to automate the procedure, thus increasing my > productivity. After having thought a bit, I suspect that a spreadsheet > will be enough, as Peter suggests. > > Paul > What you may want to do is create the report is a text editor, using easy to remember abbreviations for each sub-phrase. Then create a sed rule file that replaces each abbreviation with the sub-phrase. (You can use the same file for more then one document.) You can then run sed on your text document and have it replace the abbreviations. I usually find it easier to remember a 3 letter abbreviation then a number for a sub-phrase. Sed rules: s@abbreviation@sub-phrase@g Sed command: sed -f sed.rule abb-file > finished-file Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!