simple way to use placeholders

Hi,
I have question about using placeholders, maybe this question seems very simple but it can help me.
- If i want to use a placeholder in a page like [+total+], what is the easiest way?
calling a ditto snippet call in page and create a tpl including [+total+] ?? or there is a simpler way?
- I want to use same Ditto calls for some docs in a page, like calling the latest doc from (for example) 10 (or more) folders as a list.
Should i call ditto for each doc? or is there a simpler way to call many doc by one calling?

your guidance will very useful for me,
Thanks
AHHP

1. [+total+] is the number of Ditto pages, not total documents. I don’t see how this could be useful outside of a paginated Ditto call.
2. To call the latest doc from many folders can be achieved by setting &parents to the id of the folder’s parents and then &depth=`3` or simply set &parents to the ids of the folders themselves.

Thanks a lot Mark,
Your reply is very useful for me.

Thanks again
AHHP