Text Replacement

In this video, we’re going to take a look at how we use text replacement on the Mac. With text replacement, what we can do is we can type an abbreviation and then have the Mac replace that abbreviation with specific text, or maybe you mistype a word a lot. Every time you type that word incorrectly, what you would like to do is have the Mac replace it with the correct word. We can do this with text replacement. Let’s see how this works. Let’s go to my Mac.

Let’s go and open up my Notes app. Let’s type in here Dan’s Tutorials. Now, what I would like to do instead of typing this out every time, is type in an abbreviation. When I type that abbreviation, the Mac will see that and replace it with Dan’s Tutorials. Another option would be for words that you commonly misspell. I seem to misspell the word like L I K E commonly. The way that I spell it, and it’s just because I’m not a great typist, the way that I spell it a lot is L E I K. So I have to go and fix it. I have to go and replace us with L I K E. What I would like to do is I would like to have the Mac recognize that when I type it out this way, and replace the wood, the word like. How do we do that?

How do we use text replacement? Well, the first thing we need to do is we need to go to our System Preferences. I’m going to go and hide my Notes. I’m not going to quit out of it. We’re just going to go and hide it. Let’s go ahead and delete this first. And now I go up to Notes here, and then I go over to hide. It’s not going to quit it. It’s just going to hide it. Now, what I need to do is I need to go to my System Preferences. So I go up underneath the Apple menu, and then we go over to System Preferences. From here, we need to go to our Keyboard settings, our Keyboard preferences. I select it, and now what we need to do is we need to go to Text.

Under Text, you’re going to see we have replace. This is what we would type. And then we have With; this is what it’s going to replace it with. So if I type in 5M, what it’s going to do is it’s going to replace it with Leaving in five Minutes. I type in OMW; the Mac will replace that with on my way. I want to add my Dan’s Tutorials, and I want to add my like how I misspell it. To do that, we go to the + here, and now I type in DT, and now I just go over here, and I type in Dan’s Tutorials. Let’s go and add like in here. Tap on the + or click on the +. How do I misspell it? Well, I misspell as L E I K, cause I’m not a great typist. And then I want to replace that with L I K E. When I close this and then go back over to my notes, watch why happens when I use a few of those text replacement.

Let’s start with 5M. Remember when I type in 5M it’s going to say Leaving in five minutes. So I type in 5m, and we can see it says leaving in five minutes. Let’s go with O M W for on my way. O M W, we can see it’s going to replace that with on my way. I just hit return. And now we have on my way. Let’s go with Dan’s Tutorials. I type in DT, and now we can see, we have Dan’s Tutorials. I just hit return. And now we have Dan’s Tutorials.

Now let’s go with my like. This time, I’m going to type out a sentence, and I’m going to mistype like, so I just go, I L E I K this, and you can see it replaced it with like. I actually typed in L E I K, but the Mac recognizes that and replaced it with L I K E.

Now, if you have an iPad or an iPhone, these text replacements will share across those other devices. You just have to make sure that you have Keychain selected in your iCloud settings. To do that, you go up to your Apple menu again, and then we go over to our System Preferences. From here, we need to go to our iCloud settings. So I click on Apple ID. Make sure that we have iCloud selected, and then we need to make sure that we have Keychain selected. Right now, mine has not been selected, which means any changes I made in text replacement will not show up on my other devices. So if I want to share my text replacement with my other devices, I turn this on. I enter in my password, and now my Keychain will be synced across all of my different devices, which means that my text replacements will also be synced across all my different devices.

So that’s how we use text replacement on the Mac. All we have to do is go to our System Preferences, and then you go to Keyboard. Under Keyboard, there are going to be several tabs. The tab we want to go to is Text. Under Text, you’re going to see replace and with, put in what you want to replace, the abbreviation, and then what you want to replace it with under with.

So that’s how we use text replacement on the Mac.