Replacely

· 4 min read

Mac text replacement not working in Microsoft Word

Word for Mac ignores the Text Replacements in System Settings and uses its own AutoCorrect list. How to move your shortcuts into Word, plus options that work.

The short answer

Word for Mac doesn't use the Text Replacements you set up in System Settings. It has its own feature called AutoCorrect, and your shortcuts have to live there to expand in a Word document. Open Tools > AutoCorrect Options, add each shortcut in the Replace column and its text in the With column, and Word will expand it as you type. If you'd rather keep one list for every app, use a system-wide text expander instead.

Why Word skips your Mac shortcuts

This isn't a bug you can fix with a setting. A Microsoft Q&A user asked why their text replacements worked in Notes but not in Word 365 on a MacBook. The accepted answer from Microsoft MVP Bob Jones was blunt: "Mac Office does not use the Mac's limited Text replacements feature." Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the other Office apps share their own list.

The same user said the shortcuts did work in Word on iPhone and iPad. So the behaviour differs between Word for Mac and Word for iOS, which makes this more confusing than it needs to be.

Readers in a TidBITS discussion found one odd exception. Their Mac text replacements expanded inside Word comments but not in the main document text. That's handy to know when you're testing, because a shortcut that works in a comment tells you nothing about the body.

Fix 1: add your shortcuts to Word's AutoCorrect

This is the fix that works today with nothing extra installed. Microsoft's article on adding AutoCorrect entries covers Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac, Word 2024 for Mac and Word 2021 for Mac.

  1. In Word, open Tools > AutoCorrect Options. The MVP answer above also gives Word > Preferences > AutoCorrect as a second route.
  2. Click the plus sign at the bottom left of the dialog.
  3. Type your shortcut in the Replace column, for example addr.
  4. Type the full text in the With column.
  5. Press Return.

Microsoft notes that the AutoCorrect list is shared across Office programs, so an entry you add in Word also works in Excel and PowerPoint. According to the MVP answer, AutoCorrect can also store formatted entries as well as plain ones.

Moving a long list across

If you have dozens of shortcuts, typing them in again is tedious. I couldn't find an official tool that imports macOS Text Replacements into Word's AutoCorrect. What you can do is get a readable list out of macOS first. Apple explains how to export your text replacements: select them in System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements and drag them to the desktop. That creates a file called property list.plist, which you can open in TextEdit and copy from. Our guide to exporting and backing up text replacements also shows how to get a CSV file.

Fix 2: the Spotlight copy trick

Guiding Tech describes a workaround for apps that ignore text replacements, and it uses Word as its example:

  1. Press Cmd+Space to open Spotlight.
  2. Type your shortcut so it expands inside the Spotlight field.
  3. Press Cmd+A, then Cmd+C, then Esc.
  4. Paste into Word with Cmd+V.

That article is from July 2024 and Spotlight has changed since, so test it on your Mac before you rely on it. Even when it works, it's six keystrokes to save a few words, so I'd only use it for a long block of text you need now and then.

Fix 3: use a text expander that works in every app

AutoCorrect solves Word, but you end up with two lists to maintain, one in macOS and one in Office. A system-wide text expander gives you one list for Word, your browser and everything else.

If you use one of these, consider removing duplicate entries from Word's AutoCorrect. Otherwise two tools may try to expand the same shortcut.

Inserting today's date in Word

A lot of people use text replacements for dates, and a fixed replacement can't do that. Word has its own command for it. Microsoft's guide to inserting today's date uses Insert > Date & Time. Tick Update automatically if you want the date to refresh each time you open the file. For a shortcut that works in every app, see how to insert today's date with a keyboard shortcut on Mac.

Summary