Way back in February of last year, Microsoft added text
predictions feature to Word for Windows. At that time, it was
unclear when the upgrade will land for the web client or Word
for macOS, but thanks to the updated roadmap, we now know that
the feature is arriving on Mac later this year.
Microsoft has quietly confirmed the text predictions feature
for Word on macOS in an update to an entry on its
roadmap page and there’s been no official announcement from
the company yet. As you’re probably aware, Microsoft Word’s
text precautions can greatly help users compose documents
quickly and with greater ease.
As noted by Microsoft, Word will receive a text predictions
feature in September 2022. This appears to be the current
release target and note that the update won’t be offered to
everyone. Microsoft is targeting the consumer channel, monthly
enterprise channel, and semi-annual enterprise channel.
How text predictions work in Word
Based on our hands-on with Word for Windows, we know that this
new feature is able to correctly anticipate what we intend to
write next. This can save your time and effort of typing it out
in full.
Once updated, text predictions will begin appearing next to the
words you type in real-time and predictions will be greyed out
by default, which means you’ll need to approve the suggestion
with the TAB key. You can also reject the predicted words or
phrases by hitting the ESC key.
Text predictions feature apparently uses machine learning to
adapt over time and better understand your writing style or
linguistic preferences. It has been in development for a year
and many users have said that the feature does help minimize
errors of spelling and grammar.
It is worth pointing out that Microsoft’s rival service Google
Docs offers the same functionality across all platforms for a
while now. This update will restore parity between
Microsoft’s powerful Word software and its rival service Google
Docs.
Other improvements coming to Word
We don’t know when the feature will arrive on the web version,
but another roadmap update has confirmed that
Word for web will receive dark mode. While the existing
dark mode only dims the toolbar and ribbons, Word for web will
be using a new dark mode that will apply to the editor screen
as well.
Word web will also provide users with an option to switch
between their preferred levels of darkness.
