Edit and use your Japanese user dictionaries on Mac

1. On your Mac, switch to a Japanese input source.

2. Click the Input menu in the menu bar, then choose Edit Text Substitutions.

3. In the Text Replacements dialog, click .

4. In the Replace field, type the hiragana reading of the word (up to 32 characters).

   • If you add an adjective, enter the reading in its dictionary form. The ending must be 〜い (~i). For example, あたらしい (atarashii) or たかい (takai).

   • If you add an adverb, don’t include inflective endings, such as 〜な (-na) or 〜だ (-da).

5. Click the With column, then type the replacement word (up to 64 characters).

6. Click Add.

   Tip: When the word or phrase you want doesn’t display in the candidate window (such as a compound with a special reading, a place name, a proper name, or another term not in Japanese dictionaries), you can construct it using individual readings for each kanji character. For example, modify the words たいよう (taiyou), みなみ (minami), and おおい (ooi) to yield 陽南多 (ひなた or “Hinata”). If you’ll use the word or phrase again, add it to your user dictionary.

You can delete words from your Japanese user dictionary (but not the basic dictionary). You can’t undo this action.

1. On your Mac, switch to a Japanese input source.

2. Click the Input menu in the menu bar, then choose Edit Text Substitutions.

3. In the dialog that appears in Keyboard settings, select the word to remove, then click .

1. On your Mac, switch to a Japanese input source.

2. Click the Input menu in the menu bar, then choose Edit Text Substitutions.

3. In the Text Replacements dialog, click .

4. In the Replace field, type the hiragana reading for the symbol.

5. Click the With column, click the Input menu in the menu bar, then choose Show Emoji & Symbols.

6. Find the emoji or symbol you want, then click it.

7. Click Add.

1. On your Mac, switch to a Japanese input source.

2. Click the Input menu in the menu bar, then choose Edit Text Substitutions.

3. In the Text Replacements dialog, Command-click each word you want to export, or press Command-A to select all of the words.

4. Control-click the selection, choose Export, choose where you want to save the export, then click Export.

   The backup file Text Substitutions.plist is created. You can edit the file using TextEdit.

To import a Text Substitutions.plist file, drag the file into the Text Replacements dialog of Keyboard settings while using a Japanese input source.

You can also create text files to import into specialty dictionaries.