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iOS 5: How to add words to the auto-correct dictionary

Josh Sunshine — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:11:55 +0000

Before iOS 5, the only ways to add words to your auto-correct dictionary were either to type the word over and over until your iPhone or iPad learned it, or to add a contact with the word as its name. Neither of these were ideal. Luckily, iOS 5 introduces a much easier way to teach your device new words.

To add a new word to the dictionary, tap Settings, then navigate to General > Keyboard. At the bottom of the screen, you should see a Shortcuts heading. Don’t be put off by the name; this is the place to teach iOS new words, but it’s called shortcuts because it’s primarily used to create typing shortcuts, similar to TextExpander.

Next, tap the Add New Shortcut… button. You’ll be taken to a new screen with two text fields, labelled Phrase and Shortcut. The important one is Phrase, at the top. This is where you need to type the word you want to add to your dictionary. The Shortcut field, as it says, is optional. That’s where you’d add a shortcut that expands into the phrase you added (more on that in a minute).

After typing in a word or phrase in the first field, tap Save at the top of the screen and your word will be added to the auto-correct dictionary. Now, when you type that word anywhere on your device, auto-correct should leave it alone, and if you spell it slightly wrong, it should suggest that word, too.

My username for almost everything is jobbogamer, so I added it to my dictionary.

If you’d like to enable TextExpander-like functionality, you can fill in the Shortcut field. For example, you could type “eml” as the shortcut, and set the phrase to your email address. After tapping save, whenever you type “eml”, auto-correct will suggest your email address. It’s very useful for words and phrases you type a lot, and since the feature is baked into iOS, it works in every app, not just those with support for TextExpander Touch, which was the way to get this functionality before iOS 5.

Some useful words to add to the dictionary

I’ve found it incredibly useful to add some words to my iPhone’s and my iPad’s dictionaries. For instance, I’ve added all my email addresses (I have quite a few!) with different shortcuts; my main email address is “eml”, my iCloud email address is “ieml”, and my Gmail address is “geml”.

Other helpful words to add are words you’ve made up yourself – I have a few of those, too – and nicknames for people. That way, you won’t have to battle auto-correct to type words that don’t really exist.

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5 Things You Never Knew About Spotlight

Lisa Hoover — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:00:28 +0000

Many people use Quicksilver as a replacement for Spotlight, but if you’re happy with the native file search and app launcher in Mac OS X, then why change? You probably know that you can access Spotlight quickly with the Command-spacebar keyboard shortcut, but here are a few more tricks you might not know exist.

Spotlight makes a great calculator and dictionary. Just open the search box, type an equation, and watch the answer appear as you type. It works on long equations with several steps (623+191*87-4), as well as mathematical terms like square root or power. Type a word in the search box and its meaning appears in the results — so you can search for the definition of pi or the numerical value of pi, your choice.
By default, Spotlight shows the first 20 results of a search. While you can’t change the number of returns, you can eliminate some of the categories the app checks so the results you get are more pertinent. Select Spotlight in the System Preferences, and click on Search Results. If you typically use Spotlight to search documents and email then uncheck categories like Webpages and Music so they’re ignored in the future.
Do you tag your pictures with keywords in iPhoto? Use Spotlight to snag images and drop them right into an email without even opening iPhoto. If your photos contain metadata on what type of camera was used, start your search with the keyword make to get a list of all pictures taken with that camera (for example, make:Nikon).
Spotlight can search inside the public files of other Macs on your network, if they’re running Leopard. If they’re running an older version of OS X, or another operating system entirely, it can only search for specific file names.
Many popular third-party apps, like OmniOutliner and Intaglio, have plugins for Spotlight to make their files searchable too. Check here for a full list of what’s available, and to find out if your favorite app has a plugin you didn’t know about.

What’s your favorite Spotlight trick? Let me know in the comments.

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iPhone Dictionary App Roundup

Josh Pigford — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:00:59 +0000

Recently, Merriam-Webster announced that the Collegiate Dictionary was available for the iPhone and iPod touch, and since then I’ve wanted to explore what kind of dictionary options were out there. After all, everyone needs a dictionary right?

The Collegiate Dictionary, although not glamorous in its function, boasts over 225,000 entries, a history of the last 15 searches, and links between entries. Since the app works offline with only a “minimal amount” of memory, I ran to the iTunes App Store to download it — only to have a small heart attack at the $24.99 price tag (ok, maybe just a heart murmur).

So if you’re a poor college student, struggling journalist, or a lost crossword puzzler, you may want to try a few other options out there for getting those precious definitions. I’ve brought a few of my favorites together for you.

WordBook

WordBook by TranCreative Software is another iTunes App Store offering. Weighing in at only 150,000 entries this app contains the standard dictionary functions plus a crossword and anagram solver and thesaurus all for $7.99.

TouchDictionary

TouchDictionary is exactly what is sounds like — an online dictionary for the iPhone and iPod touch. This web app also includes links to translate your word into German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Webster’s New World Dictionary

If you insist on only the “big name” brands then Webster’s New World Dictionary is another option. As the “official dictionary of the Associate Press” the dictionary has over 163,000 entries, 12,000 Americanisms, and fast lookup using only the first few letters of a word. At 10MB this little app will set you back $14.99.

Reference: Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedia

If you want the look of an App but don’t mind being tied to the Web then Reference: Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedia is for you. Cost: $0.99.

English Dictionary & Thesaurus

Probably the best alternative to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary app is the English Dictionary & Thesaurus by WordWeb. This app works offline as well and rivals the Merriam-Webster dictionary with 222,000 words, bookmark and history support, and support for different English language regions (American, British, Canadian, and Australian). Cost: $4.99.

TIP iPhone Dictionary

The TIP iPhone Dictionary, by Two Peas Consulting, offers a very unique dictionary on the Web. The simple (read: fast on EDGE) online dictionary offers a “Round-Robin-Search” where every word in the definition is a link to yet another definition. If you don’t understand a word in a definition then just tap to bring up the definition of that word.

As you can see, there are plenty of alternatives to a high-priced dictionary app. And until Apple ports Dictionary to the iPhone and iPod touch, the hardest choice is going to be which one to use first!

What dictionary app do you use on your iPhone/iPod touch?

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