Step 1: Open your System Preferences using the icon in your Dock or the Apple icon in the menu bar, and choose Keyboard. The keyboard dictation is a feature that you need to turn on in order to use.
This can be extremely useful if you happen to have accessibility problems, or if just don’t feel like tapping away on a keyboard all day. Let’s take a look at how to use dictation on a Mac, along with some common commands. Just create a new Automator document after clicking the “Dictation Command” button (see image below), and when the workflow is saved, it appears in the list of dictation commands. To do this, you’ll need to be familiar with Automator and how to use it, but if you are, you suddenly have a great deal of power at your command. To see all of the dictation commands, just click on the Dictation Commands… button (see image below).Įven better, you can create your own workflows that can be added to the list of dictation commands. “Start Dictation” is one of 62 voice commands dealing with dictation that you can use - and if you enable advanced commands, there are actually 97 commands that you can use to control your Mac with your voice. Now to start dictation, I just say “Ruby, Start Dictation” and the dictation microphone appears to the left of whatever text field I’m dictating to. Click on it.Ģ.) Check the box that says “Enable the dictation keyword phrase.”ģ.) Type in a word or phrase that you will say before the command that begins dictation. When the accessibility pane appears, scroll down the sidebar on the left side until you see the item for dictation (see image below). Here’s how to do it.ġ.) Launch System Preferences, then click on the Accessibility button.
That’s right - with a voice command, OS X dictation can be enabled.
This isn’t anything new - it’s been around for a few iterations of OS X - but starting with Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, you no longer have to touch the keyboard to start dictation. If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to check out some of our other OS X tips.Happy Back to the Future Day, Rocket Yard readers! While you may not have your hovercar or dehydrated pizza yet, you do have the power to use dictation to type on your Mac. Keep in mind that if you changed the dictation keyword phrase in step 3, then you’ll need to replace the word Computer with whatever phrase you used in its place. Thanks to this handy accessibility option, you can now enjoy totally hands-free dictation on your Mac. To stop dictation, say “Computer Stop Dictation”. Step 4: Say “Computer Start Dictation” to begin dictation. But with enhanced Dictation Commands in macOS, it also refers to dramatic changes in the way people work, learn, and how they access and create content. Step 3: Open System Preferences → Accessibility → Dictation and check the box next to Enable the dictation keyword phrase. The keyword phrase defaults to the word Computer, but you can change it to something different if you’d like. T he power of the spoken word has traditionally been used to describe how great oratory can change the way people think.
This will require a 1.2 GB download to enable offline dictation, which is a prerequisite to completing step 3. Step 2: Click the On radio button next to Enable Dictation and check Use Enhanced Dictation. Step 1: Open System Preferences → Dictation & Speech. But did you know that it is also possible to start dictation hands-free using only your voice? In this brief tutorial, we’ll show you how. By default, dictation on OS X is initiated by using a double-press of the function ( fn) key on your Mac’s keyboard.