About Me

nerd.of.steel: Rocco Augsuto

I am a Web Developer, Consultant, and Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) based out of the City of Roses - Portland, Oregon. I have over 15 years of education and experience in the art of Web Design and Development and have no plans to stop my quest for knowledge anytime soon. Over the past year I have been moving into the mobile Internet space and started developing applications for the Google Android platform.

Placement Text That Doesn't Make You Look Unprofessional!

Posted: Sep 10, 03:58 PM

I was testing a friends web application the other day when I ran across this:

gfisrjghurewughurwghreh gveruvjghue urgyerg nvqwvtgrwvvufhsdfh9r ro grhg wrigwrhg rgusf gvwru i24 8ywuhgW WGB G WRG HESGHRG VYHIFa A regwr

If you have ever built a database driven application from scratch, you should be familiar with this. What we have here is just 100% gibberish that my friend threw into his application just to test how the text rendered on the page. The worst part about this, was that the project I was testing for him was being packaged to show to his client later on that same day!

It is easy for a developer to fall into a wonderful world of lazy placement text but there are a lot better, and professional, ways to accomplish this. For placement text, I usually turn to a Lorem Ipsum text generator. If you are unfamiliar with Lorem Ipsum, which is also known as greeking, then I suggest reading up on this Wikipedia entry.

Lorem Ipsum in a nutshell is method of displaying placement text that looks as if it could be real words. While the text itself looks like it could be a foreign language, such as latin, it actually has no meaning at all. It truly is neat stuff, and looks a lot better than the showing a client an application you built with the text above!

If you don’t believe me, compare the two following texts:

Gibberish

fvhdsgf sgt rg sfdsrfs ghtghw 0it vr0u wghrls g gwrhjg sb vsrghjrbskg hkreghjrsg hr ghjle fwsufhruhg fv ghsrgfhjs gousghsr gskj ksjghukrUD3WQ9F HNASNGDFNBJLDGJH;AIW

Lorem Ipsum

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

LINKS: Lorem Ipsum Wikipedia Entry | Lorem Ipsuim – All the facts – Lipsum generator