It’s easy: just type =rand() into a Microsoft Word document and press Enter. It’ll be replaced with a five-sentance paragraph:
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.
You can also type in =rand(3) to get three five-sentance paragraphs.
I figured out that the highest you can go is =rand(200), which produces 14 pages of random goodness. (Assuming you have 12-point Times New Roman font.) Typing =rand(201) and then pressing Enter doesn’t do anything.
So, what’s the practical use of this?
Well, say you want to test some text formatting or text wrapping. Instead of pounding on the keyboard for three minutes producing gobbeldy-gook text to test on, just use Word’s random text insertion.
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George Monty responded on 26 Jun 2006 at 9:44 am #
Hi John:
I have found the rand() function very useful in testing changes to formats.
To add to your information, ther eare actually 2 parameters to the function:
=rand(a,b) (def 3 paragraphs). a=no. of paragraphs, b=sentences per paragraph (def 5).
You can quickly get a large document by entering =rand(200,99) or =rand(99,200). these seem to be the maximum values permitted.
Catholic Geek » Blog Archive » CG#1 - Word 2007 Beta 2 Tour responded on 03 Jul 2006 at 3:41 pm #
[...] More about Word’s random text feature. [...]
Geoff responded on 09 May 2007 at 8:51 pm #
This is interesting. Does anyone know how to stop people from peddling this type of dribble around the world as if it were a virus or an error without doing a little research to assure themselves of its validity
Cheers World
carl bin responded on 26 May 2007 at 2:30 pm #
the first no. is how many pages and the second is how many sentaces.