Apple has baked in text replacement (aka, text substitution) in Mac OS X and iOS. This can take the drudgery out of typing frequent things like your email address whether on your Mac or iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch). You just need to know it’s there and how to configure it. Both of which are simple.
Mac OS X
- Click System Preferences.
- Click Keyboard.
- Click the Text tab.
To create a new replacement, click the plus-sign (+) under the list.
To edit an existing replacement by clicking once to highlight the row then click onto the text in either the Replace or With cells to change them.
You can delete a replacement by clicking to highlight the row and then click the minus-sign (–) at the bottom of the list to delete that item.
iOS
- Tap the Settings app.
- Tap General.
- Tap Keyboard.
- Tap Text Replacement.
To create a new replacement, tap the plus-sign (+) in the upper right corner. Under Phrase type the long text string (like your email). Under Shortcut, enter the short text string that will invoke the replacement action. Then tap Save.
To edit an existing replacement, tap the row. Then, like described above, edit the Phrase and Shortcut and tap Save.
To delete a replacement, swipe your finger to the left on a row to expose the red delete button. Tap Delete.