Stopping predictive text in Word 365 for Windows, Mac or Web is quite simple, once you know where the switch is hiding. We’ll go beyond that to explain all you need to know because the basic tip doesn’t tell the whole story.
Predictive Text adds some suggested text ahead of what you’re typing. It appears in both Word for Windows and Mac plus the web version.
If you see some grey text followed by a Tab box, that’s predictive text.


- Accept the suggestion, press Tab or the right-arrow key.
- Decline a suggestion, just keep typing. Predictive text will change the suggestion as you type.
It’s possibly more appropriate in a business setting and especially for Outlook email.
Some folks understandably don’t like the intrusion into their Word documents. Some of the suggestions aren’t right at all, others not what you intend and some border on cliché.
Word for Windows
The fastest way to disable text predictions is to look on the bottom status bar. If the feature is enabled, “Text Predictions: ON” will be there.
Click on that text to open the settings pane at the correct place.
The quick official explanation says go to File | Options | Advanced then scroll down to “Show text predictions while typing”, UNcheck that box and the suggestions will disappear.
Sounds simple enough, but what if that option “Show text predictions while typing “ isn’t there in Word 365? Not greyed out but completely missing?
If you don’t want text predictions then there’s nothing to worry about. But if you’d like to try the feature, how can it be turned on?
The Microsoft advice doesn’t even mention that possibility. Various forums suggest useless answers like ‘reinstalling Office’ or ‘you must have the wrong version of Word’.
Voodoo fix
One possible answer is in the Windows settings – not in Word. This is a ‘voodoo’ fix that seems to work but it’s not clear why, “Your milage my vary”
Close Word completely. In Windows 11, go to Start | Settings | Time & language | Typing then turn on “Show text suggestions when typing on the physical keyboard”.
Now restart Word and go back to the Advanced Options, the text prediction choice should now be there.
If not, most likely Word wasn’t completely shut down. Try restarting Windows to make sure Word picks up the Windows settings.
Even that might not be enough. We have one Microsoft 365 test machine that stubbornly refuses to show text predictions no matter what. We’ve even tried praying to various deities with no success <g>.
Word on the web / browser
For Word in a browser, it’s much the same as Word for Windows but easier to control.
On the bottom status bar there’s “Text Predictions: On” or “Off:”.
Click on that part of the status bar to open a simple, direct option to “Suggest words of phrases as I type”.
Word for Mac
In Word for Mac go to Word | Preferences | AutoCorrect then the AutoText tab at far right.
Then look for “Show text predictions while typing”.
Again it seems simple but more than a few people get stuck because the AutoText is greyed out and inaccessible.
The trick is to select some text (any text) in the document before opening Word Preferences. Even though you don’t want to add a new AutoText entry, Word won’t open that tab without a selection.
Before you ask … no, we don’t know why Microsoft did that.