Over on the MacPowerUser podcast, I heard about a new tool called Cotypist that is currently in beta. You can sign up over at cotypist.com. It’s a tool that helps you get words on the screen faster by automatically suggesting words as you type. It’s like an autocompleting TextExpander tool.
If you used Microsoft Outlook in recent years, you might be familiar with the concept of auto-complete. Basically, you start typing and the system suggests what it thinks you want to say. Obviously, this can be helpful, when it works. Otherwise, it can be annoying. Use it carefully.
Cotypist works on your Mac and is available wherever you can type text. So far, I’m enjoying it, but need some time to get used to it. The tool is still in beta so it will be interesting to see how it develops.
David Sparks (MacSparky) has a nice write-up on the tool. Two suggestions I like are reviewing and fine-tuning the autocomplete features with a keyboard shortcut, so the tool doesn’t accidentally auto-complete. By default, “M” will “Complete only the next word” and “Tab” will “Trigger full completion.”
Another tip I suggest is typing slowly. This will help you understand and see the suggestions better and understand how the tool works. I found that typing too fast was causing me to miss some of the suggestions or accidentally trigger completions that I didn’t want. This is a whole new level of trusting the AI to help you type faster. A little strange at first, but growing on me.