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Mac OSX has autocorrect for spelling that:

  • Doesn't require pressing any buttons to make a retroactive change.
  • Doesn't require manually inputting these corrections/abbrevs.

wnat to want, tihs to this, plaese to please

I want to get this same autocorrection in Emacs. I know there is already another thread on autocorrection, but here's the twist that makes this question different. TextEdit does not actually do autocorrection itself: that part is done at the Mac OSX system level. How can I get Emacs to use the OSX spell correction facility?

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Aubrie
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  • Hi Dan, I haven't tried anything that gets me this. I have tried Flyspell (which doesn't correct automatically) and have heard of using abbrev-mode (which seems to require manually inputting abbrevs). – Aubrie Mar 06 '17 at 21:56
  • Please edit your post to show what you have done to setup flyspell. The [manual node on spellchecking](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Spelling.html) says that it should spell check as you type. – Dan Mar 06 '17 at 21:59
  • Ah, I think I misunderstood. You want not just spellchecking, but actual *autocorrect* (ie, Emacs replaces the word without your intervention), yes? – Dan Mar 06 '17 at 22:02
  • Yes, autocorrect and not just checking is exactly what I'm looking for. (I've updated the title to reflect this.) – Aubrie Mar 06 '17 at 22:04
  • Flyspell should bind `C-;` to correcting the previous word. If that isn't enough, use `M-$`. –  Mar 06 '17 at 22:16
  • That still requires manual intervention, so it isn't what I'm looking for. – Aubrie Mar 06 '17 at 22:19
  • Thanks for digging around on the autocorrection. Nice question now! – Dan Mar 06 '17 at 23:44
  • Aquamacs is the only version with access to OSX dictionaries (see [here](http://aquamacs.org/spelling.shtml)). I'd bet it might also the be the only way to get the kind of non-abrev autocorrect you want. – mclear Mar 07 '17 at 02:54
  • Thanks, mclear, but I'm hesitant because spell-checking != autocorrect. Still, I'll read more about it. – Aubrie Mar 07 '17 at 03:39
  • I'm linking the thread that contains a modification of the vanilla Emacs source code to permit native OSX nsspellchecker integration, but it does not support autocorrect that I'm aware of. Check out Aquamacs and see if they have made any new advancements in the autocorrect arena. The modification of the Emacs source code is based 100% on the work of the developers of Aqamacs, which I merely extracted into a patch for regular vanilla Emacs: http://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/22622/how-to-install-aquamacs-osx-spellchecker-nsspellchecker-in-gnu-emacs – lawlist Mar 07 '17 at 04:04
  • You might be interested in [the answer I just posted](http://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/31281/253) to the [other autocorrect question](http://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/2793/is-it-possible-to-auto-correct-spelling-on-space/31281#31281). It does basic autocorrect on the fly, using `flyspell`. I've tested it very, very lightly, and it seems to work. – Dan Mar 07 '17 at 04:49
  • Thanks so much, lawlist and Dan, will check out both of those and report back. – Aubrie Mar 07 '17 at 05:01

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