If you have used Apple’s iOS 8 and have enjoyed the new QuickType keyboard that is included with it, then you might be happy to know a similar service that is available in OS X has gained this function in OS X Yosemite.
QuickType is a word suggestion feature that allows you to quickly complete sentences by tapping on one of three suggested words. The suggestions that QuickType offers are contextually based, and therefore will change depending not only on the starting letters you have entered, but also on the context of the sentence you have already typed.
This service has its uses, and if you have become accustomed to it then you might find comfort in knowing the service has made its way into OS X Yosemite.
As with the QuickType keyboard, the suggestions allow you to throw together some ridiculous and funny phrases, but more importantly allow you to better use the suggested word list.
While enhanced, accessing the word suggestions in OS X is still the same: Simply press the escape key whenever you want a suggestion for a word, or for completing a partially-typed word, and a menu will pop up at your cursor with all of the options that OS X thinks are relevant. With the menu open, you can use the arrow keys to highlight a desired word, followed by pressing the space bar, tab key, or enter key to place it in your text.
The word suggestion list now offers more relevant words based on the context of what you have already typed in your sentence.
Even though its main use might seem to be for suggestions while typing, another approach to using word suggestions is for reviewing text, where if you find a word in a phrase and want to use an alternative, you can highlight it and press Escape, to get a list of relevant alternatives that could work.
Would be nice if it worked with Apple Mail.
I’m still on Mavericks (10.9.5) on some computers and Snow Leopard (10.6.8) on others. This works as described on the former, but not on the latter.
To be clear: on Snow Leopard I get a list of words ordered alphabetically, so chances are that the one you want will appear only after you provide several of the first letters. On Mavericks, on the other hand, the list is not ordered alphabetically, and the words at the top of the list are the most reasonable choices.
Unfortunately, as with all the other awesome text-editing tools that help make Macs rock, this only works for applications that make use of Apple’s fantastic frameworks for their text widgets. Since I use Chrome on my main laptop, I’m SOL.
Is there some settings for this Quictkype feature? Like choosing languages or disabling it completely?
This only works in the Text Edit app? I was hoping it would work with the Messages app also. I am getting so used to it on iOS8 that it would be nice to have on Yosemite.