The rand “virus”: or how to insert dummy text into a document

Article contributed by Suzanne Barnhill

Like jokes, urban legends, and virus hoaxes, tips about Word’s little-used or undocumented features periodically makes their way around the Internet, occasioning a wave of postings in Word newsgroups. One of these is =rand(), which is sometimes represented as an Easter egg, sometimes feared as a possible virus. It is neither. It is a Word function (undocumented in the online Help but documented in the Microsoft Knowledge Base) that can be useful in certain circumstances.

The rand function

The Microsoft Knowledge Base article How to Insert Sample Text into a Document in Word [212251] explains the use and syntax of the function:

Microsoft Word allows you to quickly insert sample text into a document. To do this, type =rand() in the document where you want the text to appear, and then press ENTER.

The inserted text is that hardy perennial: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” which contains every letter in the English alphabet.

By default, the sample text contains three paragraphs, each containing five sentences. You can control how many paragraphs and sentences appear by adding numbers inside the parentheses, for instance:

=rand(3,4)

The first number is the number of paragraphs, and the second the number of sentences per paragraph. If you omit the second number, you get five sentences in each paragraph. So, for example:

=rand(3,4)

inserts three, four-sentence paragraphs, while:

=rand(10)

inserts ten, five-sentence paragraphs.

The maximum number for either parameter is 200 and may be lower depending on the number of paragraphs and sentences specified. For instance, if you specify 200 paragraphs, then the maximum number of sentences per paragraph you can specify is 99:

=rand(200, 99)

If you specify 200 sentences per paragraph, then the maximum number of paragraphs you can specify is 99.

Admittedly, this function serves a useful purpose for filling a page when you’re designing a template and want to see how it will look with text in it. It’s also easy to see how users can be alarmed and fear this is a virus when someone suggests they try “=rand(200,99),” which quickly blows up into a giant document! (Incidentally, part of the instructions in some versions is to “Make sure there is a space between = and rand and a space between rand and (200,99).” This actually makes no difference: the function works equally well with and without spaces.)

A better method of creating dummy text

Although the rand function is quick and easy, the text it produces is not very natural. All the paragraphs are the same length, and, because every sentence is the same, the lines will tend to break in the same places. The result is that some possible formatting problems may be masked. Another, more useful, possibility, therefore, is to use “Greek“ or “lorem ipsum” text.

Because this kind of dummy text is very commonly used by designers (because it gives a natural look without distracting content), you’ve probably seen examples of it. Microsoft even used it in the Microsoft TrueType Font Assistant (version 1.1) in Windows 3.x. According to the Microsoft Knowledge Base article: What ‘lorem ipsum dolor sit amet’ Means (Q114222):

The phrase “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” appears in Microsoft TrueType Font Assistant for each example of the fonts available. This phrase has the appearance of an intelligent Latin idiom. Actually, it’s nonsense .... It's used because the letters involved and the letter spacing in those combinations reveal at their best the weight, design, and other important features of the typeface.

“Although the phrase is nonsense,” the article continues, “it does have a long history.” If you’re curious about that history, follow the link above. 

The Lorem ipsum text is also discussed at The Free Online Dictionary of Computing, which adds that: “The point of using this text, or some other text of incidental intelligibility, is that it has a more-or-less normal (for English and Latin, at least) distribution of ascenders, descenders, and word lengths, as opposed to just using ‘abc 123 abc 123’, ‘Content here content here’, or the like.”

If you want to use the text, here’s how:

Here’s the text:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Nam liber tempor cum soluta nobis eleifend option congue nihil imperdiet doming id quod mazim placerat facer possim assum.

One caveat about the above sample: it does not contain every letter in the English alphabet. If it is important for testing purposes that you include every letter, then you are better off with quick brown foxes.