Pages autocorrect options

[zen]

I'm 99% ready to ditch MS Office altogether and switch fulltime to iWork, except for one tiny problem.

I use a lot of en dashes in my writing, and in Word if I do a hyphen between sentences as I type it automatically changes them to en dashs (as it should).

Pages doesn't do this, and I can't find any option anywhere that will let me set this as an autocorrect preference.

Any Pages gurus out there got any ideas?

 

[gr8tfly]

I haven't used Pages much (yet), but I'm surprised it doesn't have that ability.

I did find in the Auto-Correction preference where you can enable automatic symbol substitution. The en-dash isn't there, though. As a stop-gap (until someone points out a better way - or the obvious), you could add a substitution rule where a double-dash is converted to en-dash. It seems to work, but it's just as easy to type option-hyphen. Obviously, an autodetect and correction would be better.

edit: Seems to be font dependent: Helvetica will give you a hyphen, whereas Helvetica CY will auto-correct to an en-dash. So far, the only others I've found are Geneva CY and Charcoal CY.

 

[zen]

Ah, so option-hyphen types an en dash? That would do me for the moment.

 

[gr8tfly]

Ah, so option-hyphen types an en dash? That would do me for the moment.

edit: yes. opt-hyphen for en dash

em-dash is option-shift-hyphen, if you use them.

There's a great widget for symbols called CharacterPal - handy when you can't remember the combo for TM or degree.

 

[thekk]

re:auto correct options in Pages

Hi, I've just got my dad a mac (Leopard) and convinced him to go with iWorks 08 instead of Office for Mac. He's recently come to me to ask if it has autocorrect. I use a windows but am pretty computer savvy and still can't seem to find where autocorrect might be hiding. By the way you guys were talking there IS in fact something along those lines.


Help?? How do I do this?

Thanks

Kk

 

[IJ Reilly]

Hi, I've just got my dad a mac (Leopard) and convinced him to go with iWorks 08 instead of Office for Mac. He's recently come to me to ask if it has autocorrect. I use a windows but am pretty computer savvy and still can't seem to find where autocorrect might be hiding. By the way you guys were talking there IS in fact something along those lines.


Help?? How do I do this?

Thanks

Kk

Look in Preferences. Also, a conversion of a regular hyphen to en-dash can easily be added to the auto-correct list.

 

[benhollberg]

This three-year-old thread just helped my out where time was a big factor. I am so glad that I came to MacRumors Forums first and that this was here. Thanks.

 

[tinius]

How to stop auto capitalization of i

Is this an option somewhere in Pages to stop autocorrecting "i" to "I"?

Have searched the prefs but can't find anything about this.

 

[walford0205]

th to Th.

G'day,

When typing for some reason I often leave the 'e' off the word 'the' and pages always autocorrects it with 'Th.'.

I've added th to be corrected with the in the autocorrect options, but that didn't work.