macOS Catalina introduces Voice Control, a new way to fully control your Mac entirely with your voice. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine to improve on the Enhanced Dictation feature available in earlier versions of macOS.1
Jul 12, 2017 Click the Apple menu at the top of your screen and select System Preferences. Click the Dictation & Speech icon in the System Preferences pane and ensure Dictation is set to On. Enable the Enhanced Dictation option and your Mac will download the appropriate dictionary from Apple’s servers.
Dictate, a Microsoft Garage project Dictate is an free Microsoft Office add-in for Outlook, Word and PowerPoint which converts speech to text using the state of the art speech recognition behind Cortana and Microsoft Translator. Currently available for Windows OS. Jul 26, 2019 While the Fn key on your Mac's keyboard is the default trigger for dictation, you can change that in the Dictation section of the keyboard preference pane Open System Preferences from your Dock or Applications folder. Click Keyboard. Click Dictation. Enable Dictation On Mac OS X Using Voice. Launch System Preferences on your Mac. Click on the 'Dictation & Speech' entry. Enable dictation if you haven't already by clicking on the 'On. These are instructions on how to enable and use Dictation in Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Step One Select System Preferences from the Apple Menu at the top left of your screen. Step Two Click to select. Dictate your documents. When you're signed in to your Office 365 account, turn on your microphone and make sure it works (see Microphone settings ). Go to Home Dictate. Wait for the red dot to appear on the Dictate button and a quick sound let you know that dictation has begun. Start talking.
After upgrading to macOS Catalina, follow these steps to turn on Voice Control:
When Voice Control is enabled, you see an onscreen microphone representing the mic selected in Voice Control preferences.
To pause Voice Control and stop it from from listening, say 'Go to sleep' or click Sleep. To resume Voice Control, say or click 'Wake up'.
Get to know Voice Control by reviewing the list of voice commands available to you: say 'Show commands' or 'Show me what I can say'. The list varies based on context, and you may discover variations not listed. To make it easier to know whether Voice Control heard your phrase as a command, you can select 'Play sound when command is recognised' in Voice Control preferences.
Voice Control recognises the names of many apps, labels, controls and other onscreen items, so you can navigate by combining those names with certain commands. Here are some examples:
You can also create your own voice commands.
Use number overlays to quickly interact with parts of the screen that Voice Control recognises as clickable, such as menus, checkboxes and buttons. To turn on number overlays, say 'Show numbers'. Then just say a number to click it.
Number overlays make it easy to interact with complex interfaces, such as web pages. For example, in your web browser you could say 'Search for Apple stores near me'. Then use the number overlay to choose one of the results: 'Show numbers. Click 64'. (If the name of the link is unique, you might also be able to click it without overlays by saying 'Click' and the name of the link.)
Voice Control automatically shows numbers in menus and wherever you need to distinguish between items that have the same name.
Use grid overlays to interact with parts of the screen that don't have a control, or that Voice Control doesn't recognise as clickable.
Say 'Show grid' to show a numbered grid on your screen, or 'Show window grid' to limit the grid to the active window. Say a grid number to subdivide that area of the grid, and repeat as needed to continue refining your selection.
To click the item behind a grid number, say 'Click' and the number. Or say 'Zoom' and the number to zoom in on that area of the grid, then automatically hide the grid. You can also use grid numbers to drag a selected item from one area of the grid to another: 'Drag 3 to 14'.
To hide grid numbers, say 'Hide numbers'. To hide both numbers and grid, say 'Hide grid'.
When the cursor is in a document, email message, text message or other text field, you can dictate continuously. Dictation converts your spoken words into text.
Voice Control understands contextual cues, so you can seamlessly transition between text dictation and commands. For example, to dictate and then send a birthday greeting in Messages, you could say 'Happy Birthday. Click Send.' Or to replace a phrase, say 'Replace I’m almost there with I just arrived'.
You can also create your own vocabulary for use with dictation.
Create your own voice commands
To quickly add a new command, you can say 'Make this speakable'. Voice Control will help you configure the new command based on the context. For example, if you speak this command while a menu item is selected, Voice Control helps you make a command for choosing that menu item.
Create your own dictation vocabulary
1. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine for U.S. English only. Other languages and dialects use the speech-recognition engine previously available with Enhanced Dictation.
2. If you're on a business or school network that uses a proxy server, Voice Control might not be able to download. Have your network administrator refer to the network ports used by Apple software products.
If you have mobility or motor impairments, repetitive stress injuries, or you find typing on a keyboard difficult in any way, there's an alternative. Dictation lets you talk instead of type, and voice-to-text transcribes what you say into words on the screen. It's among the Mac's many accessibility features. All you have to do is set it up and get going.
Basic dictation is essentially always enabled by default — you just need to activate it.
Speak the text you want to type. You can speak various punctuation and symbols, including brackets, percent signs, and more. You can also say phrases like 'caps on' to turn on capital letters.
Click Done under the microphone icon or press the Fn key once when you're finished dictating.
The more you use Dictation, the more it learns how you speak — like your accent and cadence. It may seem finicky at first, but as you use it more, it'll get better and better. Apple has a great starter guide on how to dictate punctuation and formatting, as well.
Did you know that you can dictate your text in multiple languages? Here's how.
Click Keyboard.
Click the drop-down next to Language.
Click the checkboxes next to languages that you wish to add.
Click OK.
To use those languages, you can switch to the default dictation option at any time by going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation Language and selecting your current language from the dropdown menu.
Enhanced Dictation enables you to dictate without an internet connection, and dictate continuously; this means that your words will convert to text more quickly since they're being processed locally on your device.
Click Keyboard.
Click the checkbox next to Use Enhanced Dictation. Enhanced Dictation will take several minutes to download if you haven't done so already.
Once enabled, you can use Enhanced Dictation the same way you would regular dictation. Press the Fn key twice when your cursor is in a text field. If the microphone shows up, speak what you want to be typed and click Done or press the Fn key once.
While the Fn key on your Mac's keyboard is the default trigger for dictation, you can change that in the Dictation section of the keyboard preference pane
Click Keyboard.
Click the drop-down menu next to Shortcut.
Click an option in the list or click Customize to create your own (seems like only the arrow keys work).
Dictation Commands allow you to do things with your text just by speaking. For example, you can select a whole paragraph, go back to the beginning, or replace a phrase with another phrase.
You can only use Dictation Commands with Enhanced Dictation enabled.
Click Accessibility.
Click Dictation Commands…
Click Done in the bottom right corner of the window.
Reading through the Dictation Commands list is a great way to learn all the things you can do with text just by speaking to your Mac. You can also click the checkbox next to Enable advanced commands, which will enable system commands.
Want to feel like you're in a sci-fi movie? Enable the dictation keyword phrase and you'll be able to use dictation commands even when you're not dictating. So you can be all 'computer, replace 'boots' with 'cats',' and the phrase will be replaced in your text. It's a bit finicky, but when it works, it's so cool!
You have to have Enhanced Dictation enabled for this to work.
Click Accessibility.
Enter a keyword phrase if you want to change it from 'Computer'. (But if you leave it as 'Computer', you sound like the captain of a spaceship!)
Now when your cursor is in a text field, you can just say the keyword phrase and your dictation command and it'll do it.
You have to have Enhanced Dictation enabled for this to work.
Click Accessibility.
Click the checkbox next to Play sound when command is recognized.
It is a very annoying and keep on sending update alerts every 5 minutes.I have contacted the MS Office Support and they said the following:Navigate to the ribbon under 'Home' tab click on 'Get add-ins' option click on 'manage add-ins/My Add-ins' option in the left column try removing the Add-ins that you would like to remove.But there is no option called 'Get add-ins'. How do i uninstall microsoft exchange on my mac.
If you accidentally open a website with an autoplay video or you're listening to music but want to dictate something quickly, you can mute audio output during dictation so that you don't have to manually fiddle around with volume.
You must have Enhanced Dictation enabled to use this feature.
Click Accessibility.
Click the checkbox next to Mute audio output while dictating.
In macOS Catalina, Apple has opted to change things up a bit regarding dictation and accessibility. While there was previously a section for accessibility options for dictation in System Preferences, those capabilities have been folded into the new Voice Control accessibility feature. Voice Control is a greatly expanded set of capabilities that allow you to control every aspect of your Mac, including text entry, with your voice.
The best Apple accessory has gotten betting with AirPods 2. Now offering a wireless charger case, the popular earbuds feature the new Apple H1 headphone chip that delivers a faster wireless connection to your devices, as well as support for 'Hey Siri.'
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Dictation questions? Let us know in the comments below!
Updated July 2019: Updated instructions for macOS Mojave and added a section about what's happening with dictation accessibility in macOS Catalina.
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