Microsoft's new feature for Word will help you type faster

What you need to know

• A new text prediction feature should roll out to Microsoft Word next month.
• The feature is similar to Google Docs' Smart Compose option.
• Microsoft Outlook gained text predictions earlier this month.

Microsoft Word for Windows will soon support text predictions. According to the Microsoft 365 roadmap (opens in new tab), the feature is in development and could roll out as soon as next month (via Neowin). The Microsoft 365 roadmap is a guide for feature rollout, not a set of firm release dates, so we may have to wait a bit longer to see the feature.

The text predictions feature works similarly to Google Docs' Smart Compose option or text suggestions on some smartphone keyboards. It uses machine learning to predict what words should appear next within a sentence. Authors can then accept the suggestions by pressing the Tab key or reject them by pressing Escape.

If you prefer that predictions don't show up at all, you can just completely disable the feature. The option to turn it off is especially handy if you're creating a document in which suggestions are less likely to be accurate.

Microsoft already started rolling out text predictions to Outlook for Windows (opens in new tab) earlier this month. Text prediction is also available for Outlook for the web and Outlook for Android.

Since the predictions use machine learning, they should get better over time as you use them more.