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Undocumented Word 2007 Feature: Insert Lorem Ipsum Text

Our tip last week about inserting random text was extremely popular, but virtually everybody said it would be much better if you could insert lorem ipsum text into the document instead of random content from the help file…

Turns out, in Word 2007 all you have to do is use =lorem() instead of =rand() and you’ll be able to insert the lorem text instead. We found out about this from a comment by reader Will, who gets the reader of the week award… which I just made up.

Just type in =lorem() into your document, and hit the enter key…

image

And just like that, Lorem Ipsum is inserted automatically!

image

Just like the other tip, you can use the following syntax:

   =lorem(paragraphs,sentences)

For instance, for 6 paragraphs of 20 sentences each, you would use:

   =lorem(6,20)

Sweet!

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. This article was written on 09/13/07 and tagged with: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word

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Comments (9)

  1. Charlie Chem Guy

    Older versions of windows have

    =rand(PARAGRAPHS,SENTENCES)

    ie, =rand(1,6) will give:

    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

  2. Mark

    Cool, I did not know that one — or, in fact, what Lorem ipsum means! :P

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum

  3. r

    The =lorem() only works on Word 07, but it’s still pretty cool!

  4. Nico

    Well, in case your word processor can not generate dummy text, you can find several lipsum generators on internet. The one i often use is:
    http://www.mobilefish.com/serv.....lipsum.php

  5. Atoz

    Lorem ipsum paragraphs. doesn’t translate into anything, it’s nonsense with a resemblance to latin.

  6. Eggbox

    What about — (3 hyphens) and Enter, this creates a horizontal line, and *** Enter to create a broken line.

  7. Eggbox

    The complete list (that I have found so far) for Word 2007 is …

    — Thin line
    *** Broken line
    ### Thick line with two thin lines
    === Double line
    ~~~ Wavy line

  8. Darrhel

    Atoz is wrong.

    “Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.”

    Reference: http://www.lipsum.com/

  9. Ivan Smirnov

    =rand.old() will work in 2007 just like vintage pre-2007 =rand().
    Might be useful for those who need less of a filler text but more of a font-testing string.


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