***Just to let you know that I did ask Linda this question and she did give me a response*** However I am sending it out to all of you because the rand method still didn't work today with Linda's advice and neither did the word art. Please note the bold parts of this e-mail are new inserts today...thank you Hi Linda and group I am assisting an elderly person with the computer and I I am using the =rand() method for text - and it has always worked. Now today she went and typed and entered it and nothing happened. I kept trying on different places on the screen and opening a new page to see if that would work somewhere else and it didn't - is there some reason for this to happen even though it has worked before?? We did =rand() - then Enter **I probably mislead you Linda with the way I typed the =rand() *** by the way it looks from above - When doing it in Word I didn't space anything after the () or put the hyphen as you see it above - I did the =rand() then I hit enter - I tried it again today and still now luck*** And when it came to the word art the text did not show up on the screen - we could see the text box indicators but the word art /text did not come through - we have not changed anything and I have been with her on the same computer all summer - oh wait - we did put in a new printer does that make a difference --- can you help me with this? **I am putting myself at risk here with this next question even though it is similar - but today we attempted to use the word art in Word and no luck - so we went into the Print Shop to use the word art / headline as it is called in Print Shop and the same thing happened - the indicator boxes were there but no headline - the only difference was that when you moved the headline text off of the page and to the side of the project you could see it - but it was very faint - so now I am wondering why it is happening in both places.*** and please note that the original part of this question did not include the Print Shop when I first asked Linda - her response below is based on Word - I added the PS because the problem is now happening in two places - and if there is a conflict based on the fonts in Word and the fonts in PS. Thank you, Beth <A HREF="ecarmona@xxxxxxx">ecarmona@xxxxxxx</A> **from Linda** Hi Beth...well, I can't figure out why you would think this is OT for the group...both of these questions pertain to Word and Word is certainly not OT in a group about Microsoft Office. Sending these questions to me privately really doesn't help the rest of the group who might also benefit from the answers. But, I will try to answer them. If my answers don't solve your problems, then please send these questions to the group. you said you typed =rand() - then Enter That won't work...you can't type anything after the () .. not even a space....so don't type the space/hyphen. Just type =rand() and immediately hit enter. And, as far as the Word Art goes, I know you said you didn't change anything, but try this. Go into the Tools menu and click on Options. Click on the "View" tab and see if there is a check where it says "Picture Placeholders". If there is a check there, remove that and click OK. Does your Word Art show now? Let me know if this works. If not, please feel free to post these questions to the group. Thank you in advance for your help...Beth ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************