Insert Dummy Sample or Lorem Ipsum Text in MS-Word

Although it is meaningless and out of context but sometimes we all need sample text in MS Word document. People use random text in Microsoft Word to act as a placeholder for inserting more sensible text later on. This sample text is just used to fill and hold the space. Such dummy text is also useful to quickly give a demonstration of how something will look when proper text will be in place.

When sample random text is required, most people just press the random keys in quick succession to type illegible text. This however is not the smartest way to do the job. Let’s look at some better ways!

You can insert sample text anywhere in an MS-Word document by typing the following command in your document:

= rand()

As soon as you’ll type this and hit space or enter –three paragraphs of sample text (with four lines in each para) will appear in place of this command. You can even control the number of paragraphs to be inserted and number of lines in each paragraph. The syntax for this is:

= rand(paras, lines)

For example the following command:

= rand(7,10)

will insert seven paragraphs of sample text, each having ten lines. The inserted text is localized according to the language of your Microsoft Office installation.

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rand.old function used to be used in MS-Office 2003 and it is still available in 2007 and 2010 versions for the sake of backward compatibility. This works exactly like the rand functions as explained above but it inserts the typist’s classical “quick brown fox” text as sample text.

If you prefer the traditional lorem ipsum text instead of the output produced by rand function, you can use lorem() function instead. It also works the same way as the rand function. The only difference is in the resulting text.

Lorem ipsum is pseudo Latin text that means nothing! Although, it matches an ancient Latin text but the whole text is heavily altered to make it total nonsense. Lorem ipsum is often used as placeholder in publishing and web design industries.

= lorem()

The above command produces three paras with 3, 1 and 2 lines respectively. You can also use this function with parameters:

= lorem(paragraphs, lines)

TIP 1: If you provide only the number of paragraphs to be produced and omit number of lines, then the default number of lines would be four.

TIP 2: If you enter number of paragraphs or lines higher than 200 –the function will work but will produce only 200 paragraphs.

Working of these functions depends on the value of option “Replace text as you type” under the Auto Correct facility. Auto correct detects that you’ve typed a command and replaces the command with the output text. But if you’ve turned auto correct off –these commands will not work.

So, if these functions are not producing any results –just turn the “Replace text as you type” option on.

Alright, folks, so now you don’t need to break your keyboard by doing speed-typing to enter nonsensical text. Just use these functions to neatly enter sample text as placeholder.

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