- Create and Save a TextEdit Document
- Find and Replace Words or Phrases
- Paste Text to Match the Existing Text
- Use Your Favorite Text Styles Easily
- Tabs and Indents
- Create Lists That Number Themselves
- Create Tables
- Print Automatic Page Numbers
- Automatic Spelling Correction
- Select Noncontiguous Text
- Show Substitutions
- Extra Tips and Notes
- Read Microsoft Word Files
Extra Tips and Notes
Ruler: If the ruler isn’t showing, press Command R. Without the ruler showing, you can’t set tabs, indents, or margins.
Formatting: If text won’t let you apply formatting, go to the Format menu and choose “Make Rich Text.”
Wrap to Page: If text stretches the entire width of the window, you might want to switch to “Wrap to Page.” Go to the Format menu and choose “Wrap to Page.”
If your text prints really tiny, go to the Format menu and change “Wrap to Window” to “Wrap to Page.”
Complete: To automatically complete a word that you start typing (a word that you’re not sure how to spell, or a word that’s so long you don’t want to type it all), go to the Edit menu and choose “Complete,” or use the keyboard shortcut Option Escape. A pop-up menu that contains a list of possible matches opens. Select the word you want from the list, then hit Return (or click the word in the list).
Speech: Let your Mac read selected text to you aloud. Go to the Edit menu, choose “Speech,” then choose “Start Speaking.” To stop the speech, choose “Stop Speaking.” To read aloud just a certain portion of text, select that range of text, then choose the “Start Speaking” command.
Look up words in the Dictionary: To look up a word (such as “hegemony”) in the Dictionary, select the entire word or phrase, and then right-click on it to open a contextual menu and choose Look Up “hegemony.” If your trackpad supports multi-touch gestures, double-tap the word with three fingers to look up the selected word, as shown below.