How To: Setup Keyboard Word Shortcuts

One of the most underrated features of iOS 5 is the ability to assign customizable keyboard word shortcuts to any string of letters. For example, this enables you to type “def” and once you hit the space bar it will automatically change to “definitely”. I’m not sure about you but I misspell that word more often than not, so this feature has really been helpful to me.

I’ll help you set these up for yourself!

The first thing to do is to go into your “Settings” app. Look for “General”.

After that, look for “Keyboard” near the bottom.

Now you should see “Shortcuts”. Go there.

Here is where you can see and manage all your word shortcuts. To add a new shortcut, hit the “+” button at the top-right of your screen. And it’ll take you to this page:

Here, you put the text you want to act as the shortcut in the Shortcut field, like “def”. Then, put the phrase you want it to automatically change into in the Phrase field, like “Definitely”. Then hit save.

You’re done! Now go test it out in a text or email. This shortcut works whenever you type anywhere in your iPhone. Pay attention to other long tedious phrases you type out often. Then come back here and add more shortcuts! This will save you a lot of time, and it will stack up!