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Writing Tools is one of the few Apple Intelligence features which have made it to Mac users. They provide a quick, if imperfect, way to proofread or change text, summarize it, or compose it using a combination of Apple’s models and OpenAI ChatGPT.
There is a clever solution to one of its most annoying flaws.
The software I use is Ulysses is the app I use to write everything on my Mac. Ulysses, unlike Mail, Pages, or other Apple apps, does not have (yet?) Apple Intelligence is not available in Ulysses’ header. What I need to do is select my text and wait a few seconds until the blue Apple Intelligence snippet appears. It doesn’t always appear. It will sometimes only appear when I place the cursor over the selected text. Sometimes it won’t.
If that happens, you still have a few options to invoke the Writing Tools. I can either right-click on the selected text to navigate to Writing Tools or go to Edit>Writing Tools in the top navigation menu.
I thought: why not create a keyboard shortcut to invoke it.
For years, I’ve been a devoted user of keyboard shortcuts. I’ve been a Keyboard Maestro User for more than 10 years, but macOS is also pretty good at it, so this should work either way. On Keyboard Maestro I registered Options + Shift + w to Edit> Writing tools> Show Writing Tool shortcuts. Now, I can instantly (and consistently), display the Writing Tools popup when I need it.
On macOS, you need to go to Keyboard Shortcuts in System Settings and, under App Shortcuts, input Show Writing Tools as Menu title. Then, pick your keyboard combination, and you’re set.
What’s more, this also works for pretty much any selectable text. For instance, when I’m on Safari, selecting a portion or even the entire text and invoking the keyboard shortcut feels more streamlined than opening Safari’s Reader mode (pro tip: Cmd + Shift + R) and waiting for the Summarization tool to load and do its thing.
Not to mention the fact that Writing Tools offer multiple features that go beyond just summarizing text, which comes in pretty handy depending on the situation.
How about you? Do you have your own tricks to make the most out of Apple Intelligence? Have you been using it at all? Let us know in the comments.
