From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Ken Goldman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Quick insert of characters into a column? Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:57:49 -0400 Message-ID: <4a4b9c02$1@news.greennet.net> References: <7e588b3f-b88f-4ca5-abb9-f43c9348792c@c19g2000prh.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1246420740 15350 80.91.229.12 (1 Jul 2009 03:59:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 03:59:00 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Jul 01 05:58:53 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1MLqyC-0003TT-Tv for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:58:53 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:39543 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MLqyC-0002Pq-Fe for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:58:52 -0400 User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 (Windows/20090605) Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help In-Reply-To: <7e588b3f-b88f-4ca5-abb9-f43c9348792c@c19g2000prh.googlegroups.com> Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.91.197.52 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.91.197.52 Original-X-Trace: 1 Jul 2009 13:25:22 -0400, 192.91.197.52 Original-Lines: 25 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!news.glorb.com!news2.glorb.com!bigfeed3.bellsouth.net!news.bellsouth.net!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!feedme.ziplink.net!news.greennet.net!192.91.197.52 Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:170473 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:53:30 -0400 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:65689 Archived-At: Search the docs for 'rectangle' Specifically C-x r t runs the command string-rectangle which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `rect'. (string-rectangle START END STRING) Replace rectangle contents with STRING on each line. The length of STRING need not be the same as the rectangle width. Chad wrote: > Hi, > > I'm using emacs to edit a latex file to create a table with many rows, > say 20. I need to insert & to separate the columns, so I need a > column of 20 ampersands. > > What is the quickest way to do this? I'd like to highlight a region > (column) and then tell emacs to insert the ampersand into that region, > but I can't figure out how to do this. > > Thanks for your help! > > Chad