MS Word - Another use for Ctrl+z

Quite a number of articles giving tips and tricks on MS Word advice turning off automatic formatting when users get frustrated and want to stop MS Word from changing certain things that they type, for example, three dashes turning into a horizontal line, or automatically converting to the copyright symbol after typing (c).

There's a simpler solution without the need to go through all the hassle of turning automatic formatting off.

Just undo the typing, or Ctrl+z (the keyboard shortcut).

And next time if you need the horizontal line fast, you can still do it the three dashes way.

Filler Text for MS Word

Have you come across instances when you need filler text for your MS Word documents, especially when creating templates?

Instead of going to the browser, find a lorem ipsum generator, generate the text, copy, and then going back to MS Word and pasting it, you can do it in just one step. Type "=lorem(p,l)" in your document, where "p" == the number of paragraphs and "l" == the number of lines to generate.

And hit Enter.

Viola! It's like magic.

MS Excel VBA - Copy hidden Excel worksheet contents to new workbook

Was trying to copy the contents of a hidden worksheet in an Excel to a totally new workbook and edit it via VBA and faced several issues.

     - One can't copy contents from a hidden worksheet. The worksheet must be visible in order for it to be copied.
     - After making it visible, and copying it, there were problems making it hidden again as the current active workbook is the new one instead of the original one.

So the solution is to
   1) Make the hidden worksheet visible
   2) Activate the original workbook
   3) Hide the worksheet
   4) Activate the new workbook with the copied sheet

Below's the code, hopefully can help someone who's facing the same problem out there.

Sub copyHidden()

  'Make hidden sheet visible for copying to new workbook

  Sheets("hiddenSheet").Visible = True

  Sheets("hiddenSheet").Copy

  'activate the original workbook to hide the sheet again

  newbook = Workbooks.Count

  Workbooks.Item(newbook - 1).Activate

  Worksheets("hiddenSheet").Visible = False

  'activate the new workbook with the copied sheet

  Workbooks(newbook).Activate

  ActiveSheet.Name = "copiedSheet"

  'the rest of your code here

End Sub

一首听似平凡的歌

听似平凡，其实一点也不平凡。

《只要平凡》 （电影《我不是药神》主题曲）
演唱： 张杰/张碧晨



也许很远或是昨天
在这里或在对岸
长路辗转离合悲欢
人聚又人散
放过对错才知答案
活着的勇敢
没有神的光环
你我生而平凡

在心碎中认清遗憾
生命漫长也短暂
跳动心脏长出藤蔓
愿为险而战
跌入灰暗坠入深渊
沾满泥土的脸
没有神的光环
握紧手中的平凡
此心此生无憾
生命的火已点燃

有一天也许会走远
也许还能再相见
无论在人群在天边
让我再看清你的脸
任泪水铺满了双眼
虽无言泪满面
不要神的光环
只要你的平凡

在心碎中认清遗憾
生命漫长也短暂
跳动心脏长出藤蔓
愿为险而战
跌入灰暗坠入深渊
沾满泥土的脸
没有神的光环握
紧手中的平凡

有一天也许会走远
也许还能再相见

无论在人群在天边
让我再看清你的脸

任泪水铺满了双眼
虽无言泪满面

不要神的光环
只要你的平凡
此心此生无憾
生命的火已点燃

MS Word VBA - Remove Cross Reference Links

Those who use MS Word extensively would likely have come across docs that use the cross-reference link feature.

And sometimes, due to the document passing through many hands, and when it finally comes to you, you find that the cross-reference links are all in a mess, sometimes with Error! messages here and there.

Someone came to find me the other day, and his question was - Could you help me remove the cross-reference links, just the links, but retain the words?

Ok, so I searched the web, and saw a seemingly nifty solution: Ctrl+A, and then Ctrl+Shift+F9

We happily used this, only to find out moments later that the references for all the Figure and Table Captions were all gone as well! This meant that we are no longer able to create a List of Tables/Figures, and that if more tables and figures are to be added, we have to MANUALLY update all the table and figure numbers. Imagine the nightmare with over 100 of them, each. That's a total of more than 200. Gosh.

In desperation, I sought a solution via VBA. After much trial and error, I managed to come up with this. May this help anyone who needs it.

Sub RemoveCrossRefLink()

  Dim objDoc As Document

  Dim objFld As Field

  Dim sFldStr As String

  Dim i As Long, lFldStart As Long

  Set objDoc = ActiveDocument

  ' Loop thru fields in the doc

  For Each objFld In objDoc.Fields

     If objFld.Type = wdFieldRef Then

        objFld.Select

        Selection.Fields.Unlink

        objFld.Update

     End If

  Next objFld

End Sub

师父 vs 师傅

What's the difference between 师父 and 师傅, other than how it's written?

师父
1) can also mean 师傅
2) a honorific title for monks, nuns, and priests

师傅
1) the teachers who impart their profession skills to others
2) a honorific title for people who are skilled in their profession, eg 厨师傅(chef) 木匠师傅(carpenter)

In olden times, the people/disciples who learn from 师傅s usually start learning when they were very young. The 师傅s' ages thus were around the same as the disciples' fathers. Added to that was the fact that the disciples treated the 师傅s with respect akin to the respect they gave their own fathers, plus usually the 师傅s were male, which often resulted in 师傅 being written as 师父, and people in general accepted this.

Nowadays, though, 师傅s are not necessarily someone as old as the student's father, and might also be a female, so to address a teacher, using 师傅 would be more appropriate.

On the other hand, using 师父 to address a teacher would sound more affectionate, as there is an underlying meaning of 师父=父.

Can one use 师母 instead of 师父 to address a female teacher then?

In this day and age, the term has evolved to include female teachers, though it is more commonly understood that 师母 == 师父's wife.

Zombie Fans

"Zombie fans" is one of those terms which has multiple meanings.

It can mean
1) People who love all things related to zombies
2) People who are fans of "The Walking Dead"
3) Fake followers on social media

The third is a straight translation from the Chinese term "僵尸粉", a term that originated from the internet, as one can see from what it means.

It is said that people even used zombie fans to "earn money" - they created fake accounts and followed a particular person, and after some time, starts to decrease that person's number of followers, and then sends a private message to that person to "ask" for payment so as to maintain the number of followers.

When it comes to money, people are indeed creative.

The Happy Birthday Song

Everyone knows how to sing the birthday song - "Happy birthday to you~" repeat 4 times. One variation would include changing the 3rd time to "Happy birthday to [insert name]".

In my school days, another variation went:
"Happy birthday to you,
You were born in the zoo,
With monkeys and elephants,
Happy birthday to you."

Sounds ok yeah? Not too offensive yeah?

So the other day I got to know of another version straight from the Nephew's mouth. It started the same, "Happy birthday to you". And the next line went - "You were born in the sky". I was like, wow, born in the sky? That's... nice? Sky ma, we love the sky, don't we?... though it doesn't rhyme with "you"...

The 3rd line surprisingly rhymed with "sky", but when I heard it I was quite horrified: "You will drop down and die~" .................................... and ended with "Happy birthday to you."

... Speechless.

The meaning of 666

In terms of Chinese, 666 is an internet slang that means something along the lines of "good job", "well done".

In most parts of China, “溜”, pronounced "liu", means "good at doing something", and the number 6 is also pronounced "liu" in Chinese, and that's how it came about.

This slang was first used in online games, likely MMORPG games, before it became widely used. Which is logical when you think on it, as those who do play online games would know that typing fast often saves lives. Typing "666" is definitely faster than typing the same in Chinese using the QWERTY keyboard - imagine wasting time choosing the correct word in the midst of battle!

Increasing the number of sixes, I guess, would mean deepening the degree of the praise, similar to "!" versus "!!!!".

AA制, AB制, and AO制

Remember the AA post previously?

Apparently it's also used in China to mean going Dutch. They call it "AA制" or "AA treat", where "AA" means "Algebraic Average".

From this comes another one: "AB制", or "AB treat".

This has become a fad among young people, where males would choose to pay a bigger slice of the bill, and the remainder would be paid by the females dining with them.

What about the male paying all for the female?

Yup, that would be the "AO制". The "O" here stands for zero, because the female basically paid zero cents.

床前没有光

上个礼拜的某一天, 经过睡觉前好多, 好多分钟和隔天约莫半天的细心教导、解释、甚至画画! 外加不少的软磨硬泡，哄骗的给了他多五分钟的iPad时间后，终于，终于! 教侄儿背了《静夜思》。。。的第一句。

汗颜。

但当他举一反三地把 "床前明月光" 故意说成 "床前没有光" 时，我是欣慰的，因为这证明他是了解那句的意思的。

今天已经教了他第三句。

可是他在学校不知怎么学了这句： “你妈妈没有毛，你爸爸没有毛”，而在念诗时，总是把这句有毛没毛的加进去。

哎哟，好头痛。

Kids these days

The Nephew called the Dad the other day and reported his overall exam results. Apparently it was better than expected (the Dad heard from the Bro some days before about the test results). Dad, although very happy, couldn't fathom how that could happen, and called up the Bro.

A few minutes after the Dad hung up the call with the Bro, the Bro called back.

Because the Bro was surprised, cos 1, the Nephew didn't tell HIM, and 2, there was no school that day, so how would the Nephew suddenly know his results? - he called the Nephew up.

And what did the Nephew say when the Bro asked how he knew?

"I guessed one."

*facepalm

We were all stupefied how the Nephew can just call and reported his exam results without really knowing, and not mentioning that he only actually guessed the results.

The kids these days.

*thumbs up

2 quotes from Dean Koontz's Odd Interlude #1

Was tidying up one of my hard drives and saw 2 quotes that I jolted down last time from Dean Koontz's Odd Interlude #1.

Quote 1:
Because I so love this wondrous world, I am by nature optimistic and of good humor. My friend and mentor Ozzie Boone says buoyancy is one of my better qualities. However, as though to warn that excess buoyancy might lead to carelessness, he sometimes reminds me that shit, too, floats.

Quote 2:
The gun once belonged to the wife of a minister in Magic Beach. Her husband, the reverend, had shot her to death before she could shoot him. In their particular denomination of Christianity, the faithful are evidently too impatient to wait for prayer to solve their problems.


Hurhur. There's always more than one way to view things, isn't there.

Time to go to...

You know that cliché where it is claimed that there are 50 Eskimo words for snow, leading to the argument that "language embodies different local concerns in different areas of the world"?

In Chinese, there are many different ways of saying "going to the toilet", like:

上厕所 - shàng cè suǒ
去方便 - qù fāng biàn
如厕 - rú cè
更衣 - gēng yī
解手 - jiě shǒu
出恭 - chū gōng
净手 - jìng shǒu
撇条 - piě tiáo
解溲 - jiě sōu

Does that embody some particular concern for going to the toilet for this culture?

Just saying. :p

Levi's ad translation

Saw this person asking how to say this in English in HiNative - a Levi's ad that's in Chinese.

Using I-should-try-to-help as an excuse for procrastination, below's my attempt at translating it, after revisions.

The world is changing.
Are you the one who will change the world?
Have you ever decided which path the ship of destiny will go?
Straight on, or just go with the flow?
From the first moment to the last,
has the world ever changed because of you?
You yourself, with your backpack,
you already have everything you need going forward.
You shall write your own motto.
You shall create your own legend.
This era is ours.

Craving Ice

Do you crave for ice? Until you can be termed an ice addict?

I used to love to eat ice. The home and office fridge was also stocked up with ice. I was kinda the official ice lady in office. With the nickname "ice ice baby". It can even be said most of my water intake came from eating ice cos whenever I felt thirsty, I went for ice first.

Not all ice are equal. Notice how some ice are transparent all the way (pure ice), while some are cloudy (ice with trapped impurities and minerals) - those cloudy ones taste the best. Like ice kacang ice. Very shiok.

People have told me eating so much ice isn't good. Especially for the teeth. But I've got no fillings, no decaying teeth - I even thought eating ice helped in maintaining the no dental fillings situation. People have their likes and dislikes, right? Like how some love to eat cake. I love to eat ice. Nothing wrong what. At least ice's kinda healthier than cake... XD

Until I read online that it might be a form of pica, where one has an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive, such as ice, soil, or chalk.

So when I went for a body checkup couple of years ago, I mentioned my ice craving to the doc. She then recommended me to take a ferritin blood test, which measures the amount of stored iron in the body. So I did, and waited to collect the results one week later.

Before the week was up, the doc called. She told me to go get some iron pills immediately and start eating them. She said the iron in my body was very low. I didn't know how low until I went to see her for the body checkup results.

Apparently my ferritin level was 2, resulting in low blood count - a 7.9. Doc said if the blood count reaches 7, it's time for blood transfusion. She's amazed I'm not always dizzy or something, and remarked maybe I've gotten used to it all these years.

So I started eating iron pills. Sangobion. Didn't cause constipation, heng ah. People have remarked I have more color in my face and lips. And what about ice?

I stopped craving them. I kinda miss the shiokness in eating them, though. I've tried to eat some once in a while, but that shiokness isn't there anymore.

And now if I see my friends who crave ice to the point of being addicted, I will ask them to go see a doc and maybe do some blood test.

The difference between 王室 and 皇室

王室 and 皇室 both mean the royal family, so what's the difference?

If the monarch is the king/queen kind - the more western type - use 王室. Cos 国王.

If the monarch is the emperor kind - the more eastern type - use 皇室. Cos 皇帝.

Word of the day - 外挂

Learned a new word in HiNative.com.

Someone asked, "What does 外挂 mean?"

The chrome extension dictionary explained the word as
1) attached externally (eg, fuel tank)
2) plug-in
3) add-on
4) special software used to cheat in an online game

Both answers given in HiNative were (4). Which I guess when without context, 外挂 is more popularly known as something that people use to cheat when playing online games.

One helpful person further went on to give an example sentence “像开了外挂一样” - which was explained as when describing someone using this sentence, means that person's life and etc is very smooth sailing, so smooth sailing to the point that it's easy to make other people jealous.

Which translation are you more inclined towards?

Came upon this sentence during class, "He that makes himself a sheep shall be eaten by the wolf."

Translation of the above would depend on how one interprets the meaning.

How would you translate it to be? Of the two translations below, which are you more inclined towards?

(1) 扮猪吃老虎的人会被狼吃。
(2) 不努力把自己变强的人会被吞没。

Where are your hands

The other day during lesson, teacher was talking about how English is very lorsoh as compared to Chinese, and that sometimes when interpreting, we can ignore those not very necessary parts and cut straight to the point, like the below.

EN: I would be most grateful if you could speak a bit louder.
CN: 请你大声点。

Or,

EN: Will all those who are in favor of this change, please signify by raising their hands?
CN: 赞成的请举手。

And then the topic digressed to how during concerts, the artists on stage would say stuff like, "你们的手在哪里！" when they want the audience to raise their hands and clap and etc. Teacher then went, "谁不知道他们自己的手在哪儿啊？？" Can tell she is not very impressed with them. XD