Text Replacements Not Working on the Mac? Check This Setting

ByEmily Dolloff

Apple provides a handy ecosystem-wide feature that replaces a typed abbreviation—say “eml”—with text you specify, like your email address. (Seriously, copy that one so you don’t have to type your email address repeatedly.) These automatic text replacements sync via iCloud so you can use them on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Find them on the Mac in System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements and on the iPhone and iPad in Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. They’re great, but it can be mysterious when they stop working on the Mac. The culprit? A menu item being turned off. So, if text replacements aren’t working in a particular app, choose Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement to turn them back on.

(Featured image by iStock.com/tookitook)

Social Media: Apple’s built-in text replacement feature expands a short abbreviation you type into something longer, but a simple menu option can prevent it from working in a Mac app. Here’s how to fix it.

Similar Posts

  • _Dear Friends,_

    The trip up the the Everglades was pretty uneventful although we did see alligators and eagles as we were watching nature go by. Grace wants to go back up for an airboat ride so we will have to put that on the list.

    I am very happy to report that Small Dog Electronics now offers Go-Pro cameras and accessories. It took us many tries but I was able to meet with someone that could make a decision at CES in Las Vegas so we are now all set and Go-Pro should be in all of our stores. We’ll feature skiing and motorcycling kits up in the Green Mountains and some surf-oriented bundles down in Key West.

    I guess this should be in a soapbox but I just want to make a quick statement that I feel that Tim Cook and Apple are 100% correct in resisting the government’s attempt to force them to create software to defeat the encryption inherent in the iPhone. One of Apple’s most valuable commodities is safety. You know when you buy an Apple product that your data is safe. Safe from most viruses, malware, ransomware and also that your private data remains just that…private. While I certainly sympathize with those investigating the horrible San Bernadino terrorist actions, I do not feel that we should pay an even higher price and sacrifice our liberty and privacy as a result. Bravo to Tim Cook and Apple.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is the “**Tempus Pro Weather Station.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002092 This complete wireless weather station has been one of out best selling devices. It combines an indoor monitoring station with an outdoor instrument and an iPhone or iPad App to give you complete weather information. It includes sensors for indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall and wind speed. It is simple to install and works by Bluetooth between the outdoor and indoor sensor and Wi-Fi to your iPhone. This is normally $159.99 but for this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers it is “**$25 off at $134.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002092

  • Security Precautions to Take While Traveling

    When we think about digital and device security, we mostly think about the fixed locations where people spend most of their time—home, school,…

  • It is definitely feeling like spring here in Key West as the flowers are blooming and we wake up each morning to the birds singing (okay and the roosters crowing, too). I get the morning snow (or lack thereof) report from Emily every day and spring hadn’t quite arrived up in Georgia when I was there, either.

    Grace and I are heading up to the 75th Annual Daytona Bike Week for a couple days and then hitting a Cirque du Soleil show in Miami on the way back. Somewhere in there I will be writing Kibbles, perhaps on my iPad mini 4.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_