Auto suggest

[Daniel]

One of the features i like from Open Office, is the auto-suggest /
auto-complete word as you type. Say for example i type accommo the program
will show accommodation as an option and i just hit enter to make the choice
accepted.

Can Word do this too?

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

It could through Word2003, and it's been reported that the feature was
restored in Word2010.

Although if you've already gotten as far as "accommo," that particular
AutoCorrect doesn't do you much good, since in that word it's the
number of c's and m's that's tricky, and how would it know whether you
wanted "accommodate" or "accommodation" (or any other form of the
word)?

 

[Stefan Blom]

If you mean that you want Word to suggest words previously typed (similar to how
your web browser may suggest previous sites as you type into the address field),
then no, Word doesn't support that.

What you can do is make use of Word's AutoCorrect feature to replace a
particular combination of characters with another combination of characters. For
example, you can instruct Word to replace "acco" with "accommodation."

Note that AutoCorrect isn't limited to single words; you can create a
"formatted" AutoCorrect entry to insert virtually anything: one or more
paragraphs of text, a table, a text box, and so forth.

 

[Jay Freedman]

I think what Daniel is suggesting is the kind of "predictive text"
that's common on cell phones. Word does not have that feature,
although it has been requested before.

There are several differences between predictive text and AutoCorrect.
For example, predictive text works from a built-in dictionary that
includes usage frequency data, and continues to suggest different
words as you add more letters to the text on the screen. AutoCorrect
starts with a limited vocabulary and lets you add more entries,
including "nonsense" aliases for extended text and/or graphics; and it
inserts its value in the document only when you type a space or
punctuation to indicate that you've completed your "word".

Frankly, I'm surprised that Word 2010 doesn't have some kind of
predictive typing feature, and I think it would be a great one for
Office 15.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Garrison Keillor has (very, very rarely) a slow-talker character whose
hearers try to finish his sentences for him -- and he always goes on
to finish them in a slightly or very different way.

I can see a "predictive text" feature outside the very limited realm
of txting as getting very annoying very quickly.

 

[Stefan Blom]

I think what Daniel is suggesting is the kind of "predictive text"
that's common on cell phones.

OK, that's a far better analogy than the one I tried to use.

Word does not have that feature, although it has been requested before.

There are several differences between predictive text and AutoCorrect.
For example, predictive text works from a built-in dictionary that
includes usage frequency data, and continues to suggest different
words as you add more letters to the text on the screen. AutoCorrect
starts with a limited vocabulary and lets you add more entries,
including "nonsense" aliases for extended text and/or graphics; and it
inserts its value in the document only when you type a space or
punctuation to indicate that you've completed your "word".

Frankly, I'm surprised that Word 2010 doesn't have some kind of
predictive typing feature, and I think it would be a great one for
Office 15.

Really? Personally, I find "predictive typing" annoying...

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP
(Message posted via msnews.microsoft.com)

 

[Graham Mayor]

But surely SMS text language is the language of the future?

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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Garrison Keillor has (very, very rarely) a slow-talker character whose
hearers try to finish his sentences for him -- and he always goes on
to finish them in a slightly or very different way.

I can see a "predictive text" feature outside the very limited realm
of txting as getting very annoying very quickly.

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Oh, dear ...

The Welsh linguist and Anglist David Crystal has already published a
couple of small books on such topics (I think Cambridge UP, his most
frequent publisher), worth looking at.

 

[Graham Mayor]

'Oh dear' doesn't being to cover it

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>


Oh, dear ...

The Welsh linguist and Anglist David Crystal has already published a
couple of small books on such topics (I think Cambridge UP, his most
frequent publisher), worth looking at.

 

[Stefan Blom]

<g>

 

[Jay Freedman]

Yes, like "surely web forums are the support medium of the future".
*Somebody* at Microsoft believes it, and therefore it will happen.
Apparently nothing is too absurd or too annoying to be ruled out.