Larilyn's Tip of the Week: Microsoft Word - Filler Text

I have a confession.

I am a productive procrastinating perfectionist.

This tends to be more apparent when I am working on a big project, document or essay.  I want to work on it.  I want to be productive, and I want things to be right.  However, sometimes the words I want to write just won't come.   

And so rather than just not work on it, I figure out a way to procrastinate the writing, but still be productive.  And that's where filler text comes in.

Let's say I"m working on a manual for New Hires.  And know that I need to write three paragraphs about the vacation policy.  However, the words aren't coming to me and I want to move on and continue being productive.  

I can tell MIcrosoft Word to put in three paragraphs of filler text - basically nonsense words.  This will allow me to continue on with formatting - choosing my font, choosing the size, how I'm formatting the page, etc.  All without having to write a single word yet!  

And if I do all my formatting and still am not sure what I want to write - no worries.  I can move onto the next section of the manual and not worry about if page numbers will change in the future, because the filler text is saving the space for me.

How does one use this filler text?  It is quite easy.  You use a simple formula and include how many paragraphs you want of filler text.  You put your cursor where you would like to insert filler text and you type =Lorem() and hit enter.

In the parenthesis, you just put the number of paragraphs that you want filled.  So for my example of needing three paragraphs, I would type:

And after I hit enter, I would see:

And I can go on my merry wayl  Free to come back and write when I feel so inspired.