How do I stop TextEdit from converting units?

[Nermal]

Hi everyone,

I'm running MacOS 15.3, and TextEdit is trying to be "clever". If I type, for example, "10mm=" then it auto-fills "0.394in" after it. How do I stop it from doing this?

In Settings I've disabled "Text replacement" ("Data detectors" was already off). I can't find any other settings that seem to be related.

Help!

 

[vanc]

That's interesting. Couldn't find a option to turn that off either. But if you press any keys other than space, the auto-fill will disappear. If you need a space after "=", you can use Option+Space. Just a workaround.

 

[m..]

It even happens typing in safari.
You could try turning off the new AI features

Pressing escape before typing anything after the = stops the conversion appearing.

 

[m..]

I tested switching off Apple Intelligence and the conversions and maths results stopped autocompleting.
Edit:
Ok I was wrong it must have been a coincidence see next post for the correct answer

 

[gilby101]

Same for Pages, Notes, etc. Also some 3rd party editors - e.g. Typora

Instead of Text Edit use a 3rd party text editor (I use BBEDit). For formatted text use MS Word.

But, for Text Edit go Settings and disable "Correct spelling automatically" - quit and restart Text Edit (possibly need to be a new document). This seems to disable the 0.394in.

Note this is on an Intel Mac which doesn't have Apple "intelligence". But maybe my Intel Mac is semi-intelligent!

 

[m..]

Actually now I have tested it, turning "Correct spelling automatically" off or on, dose not seem to do anything for me either.

Weird. If you change the setting, quit, restart, create a new document. It still adds the conversion. But if you create a second new document it no longer dose it.

 

[Nermal]

But if you create a second new document it no longer dose it.

It's a bit strange: even in the same document if you type the same thing (e.g. "10mm=") multiple times then it only converts the first time. I was trying to figure out what I'd accidentally pressed the first time it happened!

I don't believe this has anything to do with AI, because I too am on Intel where the features are supposedly not available.

Same for Pages, Notes, etc. Also some 3rd party editors

That's good to know: no point in poking around the TextEdit settings then.

 

[haralds]

Look at Preferences > Keyboard > Text Replacement

 

[Nermal]

I've been there. It lists the replacements that have been set up, but there doesn't seem to be any way to turn it on/off entirely.

 

[ignatius345]

I just checked a couple of my third-party apps like Tot and Sublime Text 3 and they happily refuse to autofill this annoying conversion thing. Same with Ulysses, Things and Mimestream. I have no idea what these all have in common -- but at the very least there are some options.

 

[v04bvs]

Edit / Sustitutions / Text Replacement: Uncheck it. Works for current session and eventually will start work for new sessions, at least that was the case for me.

 

[Nermal]

Does not work for me.

 

[vanc]

Edit / Sustitutions / Text Replacement: Uncheck it. Works for current session and eventually will start work for new sessions, at least that was the case for me.

Doesn't work for me either. I actually unchecked all the options. As soon as you type in a new number, the hint will show up.

 

[Adora]

Hi everyone,

I'm running MacOS 15.3, and TextEdit is trying to be "clever". If I type, for example, "10mm=" then it auto-fills "0.394in" after it. How do I stop it from doing this?

In Settings I've disabled "Text replacement" ("Data detectors" was already off). I can't find any other settings that seem to be related.

Help!

I tried it. Had to do it the other way round. If you wait a second it disappears automatically. But I don't want this too, especially in a simple text editor, what should do nothing more than showing plain text.

In other text editors or simple word processors I have installed, this doesn't happen.