A useful option in macOS is ‘text replacement’, which allows you to automatically replace certain letter combinations or words with a sentence or word.
For example, when you type ‘att’ you can automatically replace it with ‘appletips’. This function is very useful for example to quickly fill in standard sentences, web addresses, email addresses, symbols, emojis, etc. The keywords and replacements are automatically synchronized with all your devices via iCloud and are therefore also available on your iPhone or iPad.
Enable and add text replacement
In order to use this replacement, you must first add the keywords and phrases to your personal dictionary. You can do this by following the steps below:
- Open System Preferences via ▸ System Settings
- Navigate to ‘Keyboard’
- Click on ‘Text Replacements’ under ‘Text Input’
Do you still have a Mac with System Preferences? You can find this via ▸ System Settings ▸ Keyboard ▸ Text.
You will now see an overview of all text replacements including some standard replacements. Click on the plus button at the bottom of the column to add a new replacement.
In ‘Replace’ enter a desired abbreviation, then in ‘With’ enter the word, phrase or symbol you want to use when typing the keyword. Press enter to add the text replacement. You can remove a replacement by selecting it and pressing the minus button.
Using Text Replacement on a Mac
To use text replacement in a text, simply type the keyword (for example att) followed by a space, the keyword will automatically be replaced by the specified word, phrase or symbol.
As mentioned before, all text replacements are synced via iCloud across all your iOS, iPadOS, and macOS devices. On an iPhone or iPad, you can access text replacements via: Settings ▸ General ▸ Keyboard ▸ Text Replacement.