Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ….

Shall I continue?

Many of you may know the phrase above well. For those of you who don’t, don’t worry. Even those who know the phrase couldn’t tell you exactly what it means because it doesn’t really mean anything.

Often referred to as dummy content, filler text, or simply lorem ipsum, it is a kind of pseudo-Latin that graphic designers have been using perhaps as far back as the 1500’s. The idea for such “sample content” is to fill the spaces of a design where text would normally be.

Because the text is indecipherable to all but a Latin scholar who might be able to piece together this “not quite Latin” text, it allows the viewer’s eyes to flow over the content without being tempted to read it (because they can’t, of course). When meaning is removed from the text, this allows the elements of design to be highlighted.

(Interesting Side Note: The lorem ipsum text you see all over the web is normally taken from a passage by the Roman philosopher Cicero, yet it is mangled and changed in such a way as to have no real meaning.)

WordPress Sample Content for Your Site

And so when you are setting up a new site or trying out a new theme, it can be very handy to have some of this sample content around. It sure beats writing, “This is a test.” over and over and over.

However, even copying and pasting this text can become a bore if you need to do it more than a few times. A perfect solution, then, would be a plugin that automatically adds it for you. And because we’re dealing with WordPress, of course, you know that someone has already thought of it.

Dummy Content Plugins + One Bonus Option

WP Dummy Content Generator

The WP Dummy Content Generator plugin generates dummy users, posts, or WooCommerce products.