BetterIpsum

A macOS menu bar app for generating placeholder text — words, sentences, or paragraphs — across themed content categories. Click the menu bar icon, hover to choose an amount, click to copy.

Features

• Instant copy — hover over the capsule UI to select a count (1–5), click to copy to clipboard
• Three content units — Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs, each with its own visual section
• Seven themes — Culinary Literature, Machine Learning Whitepaper, Marketing Copywriting, Scientific Manuscripts, Corporate Finance, Travel Brochures, Fantasy Quest
• Launch at login — optional, toggled in Preferences
• No Dock icon — lives entirely in the menu bar
• No network requests — all content is bundled locally in themes.json

Screenshots

Words	Sentences	Paragraphs

Requirements

• macOS 15.6 or later
• Xcode 16 or later
• XcodeGen

Quick Start

# Install XcodeGen if you don't have it
brew install xcodegen

# Clone and generate the project
git clone https://github.com/waynedahlberg/better-ipsum.git
cd better-ipsum
xcodegen generate
open BetterIpsum.xcodeproj

Build and run (⌘R). The app appears in your menu bar — no Dock icon.

Note: BetterIpsum.xcodeproj is git-ignored and generated locally. Never edit it directly — change project.yml and re-run xcodegen generate.

Project Structure

BetterIpsum/
├── project.yml                  ← XcodeGen config (single source of truth)
├── BetterIpsum/
│   ├── BetterIpsumApp.swift     ← App entry, MenuBarExtra
│   ├── Models/
│   │   └── IpsumTheme.swift     ← Codable theme model
│   ├── Services/
│   │   └── IpsumGeneratorService.swift  ← Theme loading, clipboard, login item
│   ├── Views/
│   │   ├── MainPopoverView.swift ← Primary UI with word/sentence/paragraph sections
│   │   ├── PreferencesView.swift ← Theme picker, launch at login toggle
│   │   ├── IpsumBarView.swift
│   │   └── ContentView.swift
│   └── Resources/
│       └── themes.json          ← All placeholder content (bundled, no network)
└── screenshots/

Adding a Theme

All themes live in BetterIpsum/Resources/themes.json. Each theme follows this shape:

{
  "id": "unique-kebab-id",
  "name": "Display Name",
  "paragraphs": [
    "Paragraph one...",
    "Paragraph two..."
  ]
}

Add your entry to the themes array and rebuild — no code changes required.

Architecture

• **@Observable + MenuBarExtra** — SwiftUI throughout, targeting macOS 15.6+
• **IpsumGeneratorService** — single @Observable class injected via .environment(), owns all state
• **SMAppService** — launch at login via ServiceManagement, no helper bundle required
• No SPM packages — zero external dependencies

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. xcodegen generate
3. Make changes — add themes, fix bugs, improve UI
4. Open a pull request

Please keep PRs focused. One thing per PR.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.