Instant Word Completion in Mac OS X with F5

In many Mac OS X apps, you can activate word completion by starting to type a word and then hitting either the F5 key or the Escape key. This will bring up a large menu of every word starting with the letter prefix you entered:

Word completion seems to only work in Apple crafted cocoa apps, so you’ll be able to use the feature in Safari, Pages, Keynote, TextEdit, iCal, etc, but in a browser like Chrome you’re out of luck.

This is really useful when you’re trying to remember how to spell a word, or if you’re trying to think of words that start with a particular prefix or letter (scrabble anyone?). If you’re wondering where the word list is coming from, it’s tied to your Mac OS X dictionary, which is also readily available via a keyboard shortcut.

I knew you could do this with the Escape key, but I just learned of F5. Thanks for the tip Ian!