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Word is getting text prediction but who needs it?

Maybe it’s just us, but the news that Microsoft Word is soon getting a text prediction option does NOT qualify as good news.  It’s a right PITA.

Text prediction is a new cloud service from Microsoft.  It’s currently in Outlook online for Microsoft 365 hosted mailboxes and some Microsoft 365 insiders.

Office Watch told you all about text prediction about five months ago. 

As you type, text prediction tries to anticipate what you want and shows the next few words.

Source: Microsoft

Tab to insert the predicted words.

Escape to ignore the prediction or, more likely, just keep typing.

It’s a clever trick, but might not suit everyone. We been subjected to used text prediction for months. It’s a technically clever feature that has limited practical use compared to it’s intrusiveness.

March 2021

Microsoft is now saying text prediction will be in Word 365 and Outlook 365 for Windows in March.

Hopefully it will be better than the Outlook online version in one vital way – you can turn it OFF.

The Outlook online text prediction is a persistent nuisance with no way to disable it.  Some people might like it but those who don’t, aren’t given a choice.

Most likely, Microsoft wants to collect as much usage data as they can so they made text prediction compulsory.

Text predictions will type for you in Outlook and Word

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