Tech Whine: Adding Words To The iPad Dictionary
I have been an iPad user since the original; I even have one of those weird keyboards with a thirty-pin connector sitting on a bookshelf. In all that time, I've had an IT job support in executives using the iPad as a secondary machine, written tons of Software reviews (Pour one out for Macgasm), and overall been an advocate of Apple's more modular approach to a computer. In that time, I have dealt with the inheritance and limitations of iOS, finding Apple often being the worst enemy of people who wanted their iPad to do more. Developers invented ways to link apps together, and creating one of the most approach forms of end-user automation. Both of these were embraced by Apple to the point that they bought Workflow and have extended it deep into the system as Shortcuts.
While for the last year or so, I traded in my laptop for a desktop and decided that my iPad would end up as my main-ish computer. I find that I am doing a lot more of my writing and publishing from the tablet OS that is supposed to be the computer of the future, which I don't have many problems with. I do tons of things that a decade ago would have seemed impossible, though most of them are enabled by porting Mac Safari to iPad OS. All of that is a preface to the idea that there are some things where the iOS model breaks things down.
My Son's name is a slightly non-standard spelling. This pisses off the spell checker every time I put his name in a Journal entry. In whatever Mac app I would normally write his name in, I could right-click it and add it to the system Dictionary, and it would be in the dictionary for almost every app on the Mac. However, on iOS, I can't force the system dictionary to learn a word without using one of Apple's apps like Notes or Pages. Once I learn a spelling in any of those apps, it's no longer flagged in Drafts or Day One.
This isn't obviously difficult, and Pages is one of the apps that Apple encourages you to install when setting up an iPad. It's been free for quite a few years now, but it's a frustrating limitation. I get that maybe you don't want to have something spam a bunch of brand names or spellings, looking at you Microsoft, but on the other hand, just make it part of the standard text popover options.
I am not a developer, just a lowly IT monkey, and in this case, just an end-user. However, I feel like this should be more accessible for all involved just to add one custom spelling. I mean, it is easy, open an app and type the word. Then right-click that word and select "Learn Spelling." The only difference between the Mac and iPad is that I need to install Pages to do it on the iPad, which is absurd. It's that absurdity that leads to the reputation that iPad OS makes users jump through hoops to do far easier things on the Mac or Windows. In this case, that reputation is well earned.
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