Sometimes when creating templates or documents in Word 2010, you need some ‘placeholder’ text on the page to fill empty text boxes. Although it flows like normal text, lorem ipsum text looks like gibberish and is not meant to be read; it’s meant to illustrate how a text style will look on the page.

I used to generate a block of lorem ipsum text in InDesign via the ‘Fill with Placeholder Text’ function then copy/paste it into Word. Here’s an easier way of adding it to your Word document: type =lorem(), then press Enter. You’ll see three paragraphs of lorem ipsum text (example below) which you can copy as necessary. If you want to be specific, just type a number between the brackets, e.g., =lorem(5), and five paragraphs will appear.

If you prefer the real thing: type =rand(), then press Enter, and you’ll have three paragraphs of random text to play with.