One of the villagers, Kristina Halvorson from Adaptive Path, holds steadfastly to the notion that

design can’t be tested without real content:

I’ve heard the argument that “lorem ipsum” is effective in wireframing or design because it helps
people focus on the actual layout, or color scheme, or whatever. What kills me here is that we’re
talking about creating a user experience that will (whether we like it or not) be DRIVEN by words.
The entire structure of the page or app flow is FOR THE WORDS.

If that's what you think how bout the other way around? How can you evaluate content without
design? No typography, no colors, no layout, no styles, all those things that convey the
important signals that go beyond the mere textual, hierarchies of information, weight,
emphasis, oblique stresses, priorities, all those subtle cues that also have visual and emotional
appeal to the reader. Rigid proponents of content strategy may shun the use of dummy copy
but then designers might want to ask them to provide style sheets with the copy decks they
supply that are in tune with the design direction they require.

Or else, an alternative route: set checkpoints, networks, processes, junctions between content
and layout. Depending on the state of affairs it may be fine to concentrate either on design or
content, reversing gears when needed.

Or maybe not. How about this: build in appropriate intersections and checkpoints between
design and content. Accept that it’s sometimes okay to focus just on the content or just on the
design.

Luke Wroblewski, currently a Product Director at Google, holds that fake data can break down in
real life:

Using dummy content or fake information in the Web design process can result in products with
unrealistic assumptions and potentially serious design flaws. A seemingly elegant design can
quickly begin to bloat with unexpected content or break under the weight of actual activity. Fake
data can ensure a nice looking layout but it doesn’t reflect what a living, breathing application
must endure. Real data does.

Websites in professional use templating systems. Commercial publishing platforms and content
management systems ensure that you can show different text, different data using the same
template. When it's about controlling hundreds of articles, product pages for web shops, or user
profiles in social networks, all of them potentially with different sizes, formats, rules for differing
elements things can break, designs agreed upon can have unintended consequences and look
much different than expected.

This is quite a problem to solve, but just doing without greeking text won't fix it. Using test
items of real content and data in designs will help, but there's no guarantee that every oddity
will be found and corrected. Do you want to be sure? Then a prototype or beta site with real
content published from the real CMS is needed—but you’re not going that far until you go
through an initial design cycle.

Lorem Ipsum actually is usefull in the design stage as it focuses our attention on places where
the content is a dynamic block coming from the CMS (unlike static content elements that will
always stay the same.) Blocks of Lorem Ipsum with a character count range provide a obvious
reminder to check and re-check that the design and the content model match up.

Kyle Fiedler from the Design Informer feels that distracting copy is your fault:

If the copy becomes distracting in the design then you are doing something wrong or they are
discussing copy changes. It might be a bit annoying but you could tell them that that discussion
would be best suited for another time. At worst the discussion is at least working towards the final
goal of your site where questions about lorem ipsum don’t.

Summing up, if the copy is diverting attention from the design it’s because it’s not up
to task.
 Typographers of yore didn't come up with the concept of dummy copy because people thought
that content is inconsequential window dressing, only there to be used by designers who can’t
be bothered to read. Lorem Ipsum is needed because words matter, a lot. Just fill up a page
with draft copy about the client’s business and they will actually read it and comment on it.
They will be drawn to it, fiercely. Do it the wrong way and draft copy can derail your design
review.

Asking the client to pay no attention Lorem Ipsum isn't hard as it doesn’t make sense in the first
place, that will limit any initial interest soon enough. Try telling a client to ignore draft copy
however, and you're up to something you can't win. Whenever draft copy comes up in a
meeting confused questions about it ensue.

Summing up, really:

Lorem Ipsum is a tool that can be useful, used intentionally it may help solve some problems. If
you go about content strategy the wrong way, fix that problem.

Lorem Ipsum plugins

Office suites

1. MS Word: From 2007 onwards typing =lorem(i) or =lorem(i, j) in MS Word creates

greeking text--don't forget to hit the enter key; i and j need to be integers, where i stands
for the amount of desired paragraphs and j numbers the sentences per paragraph. j has a
default value of 3 and a maximum set to 6665. >> screenshots

2. Open Office: An extension named Magenta Lorem ipsum generator is available

at services.openoffice.org. Once installed, an icon will be shown in a toolbar below the
menu bar, with the option to insert a number of paragraphs, the maximum is set to 25.
>> screenshots

3. Libre Office: Magenta Lorem Ipsum Generator 2.0.2, available for LibreOffice 3.3,
LibreOffice 3.4, and LibreOffice 3.5.

Lorem Ipsum plugins: content management systems (CMS)

1.

o Joomla
o Dummy Content: an editor button and system plugin (Joomla extension) that
sets random dummy copy in articles or in other content item that have editors
like custom HTML modules, category descriptions, or third party content.

o Folcomedia - Button Lorem Ipsum: creates a button in the editor to insert a

paragraph of "Lorem Ipsum" greeking text.

o Content Fake: a component that allows for easy creation of menu items, quickly
creating paragraphs of "Lorem Ipsum" and pictures with custom sizes.

o Overview of all Joomla plugins for Lorem Ipsum generation.

2.

o Wordpress
 o Lorem Ipsum Generator: Creates a button on wysiwyg toolbars to add a
configurable amount of Lorem Ipsum text to a post, page or any other custom
post type.

o lorem shortcode: This plugin contains two shortcodes, lorem and loremimage, the
loremimage shortcode can be nested in the lorem shortcode.

o WP Dummy Content: Easy generation and deletion of blog posts, pages, and sub
pages for developers. Full site structure in one click.

o WP Dummy Post Generator: A plugin that generates dummy posts and dummy
categories. It also allows to set names for blogs or taglines.

o Bulk Page Maker: Creates up to 20 pages or posts at a time. You can choose title,
slug, parent, template, status, format, and content via the default WordPress
Editor.

o Lorem ipsum dummy article shortcode: A seeded dummy article generator. This
doesn't only generates 'Lorem Ipsum' shortcode but also full HTML articles.

o DNS Ipsum - Due North Studios Lorem Ipsum Generator: Adds Lorem Ipsum text
using [dns-ipsum] shortcode and a TinyMCE button.

o Lorem Ipsum and Place Holder Image Generator: A simple to use Lorem Ipsum
generator.

o Lorem Ipsum Replace Content: Replaces content with Lorem Ipsum, substitutes
word for word.

o Data Generator: Makes example posts, pages, custom terms, helps to style and
develop new and current themes. It's based on the Lolita framework.

o Overview of all Wordpress plugins for Lorem Ipsum generation.

3.

o Magento
o Hatimeria Landing Pages: Creates landing pages with products using all
combinations based on categories, attributes and their values. Description is
supplied in the ackend ("lorem ipsum..."). Supports all features like CMS-Block,
injecting widgets, blocks, or variables.

4.