Have you ever wanted to write senseless text using Latin words? Or maybe you’ve just needed some sample text to check out a layout you recently made in a PowerPoint slide or a Sharepoint post? Well your answer to both is to type in the formula =lorem(x,y) to automatically generate sample Latin text for you.
The formula works in Outlook, Sharepoint and Powerpoint. Unfortunately, at this time it won’t work in OneNote or Excel.
So what does the formula mean?
X = number of paragraphs
Y = number of sentences per paragraph
Pick the number of paragraphs you want and how many sentences per paragraph, input it as =lorem(x,y) and voilà!
Below are a few screenshots of examples.
Why would you need this? Well, if you’re like me you may need to use random text examples to fill space on templates, in testing, or even Sharepoint pages to depict what it may look like in production or during a presentation. Using this tip prevents you from having to copy and paste the word “Test” in a sentence a hundred times or use some random paragraphs you copied and pasted from a recent email.
So why use Lorem Ipsum text instead of english (or any other language) text? Mostly because it isn’t distracting to the reader, who won’t try to comprehend the details and instead, will pay more attention to the layout or design. Unless of course you dabbled in Latin, then you may find you’re translating a bit of gibberish.
Where did it come from? According to an issue of “Before and After” magazine in 1994, “Lorem Ipsum” originated from a text written in 45 B.C. The same phrase and other portions from the text have been used for centuries by typographers to determine text size, font, and layout. To learn more about this random bit of knowledge, check out this Wikipedia link.