Some types are ready to dictate
Have you ever wanted to become a dictator? Not that kind!
I mean the kind who talks to his or her Mac rather than typing. If you don’t like to type, or you can’t type due to repetitivestrain injury or other ailment, dictation may be just what the doctor ordered. Dictation can be faster than typing, too. Even if you love to type, dictation can be a nice change of pace. The cool part is, it will probably work with your Mac right now with no additional hardware or software. To get started:
1. Launch System Preferences.
2. Click the Keyboard icon (macOS Sierra) or Dictation & Speech icon (Mac OS X El Capitan).
3. Click the Dictation tab. 4. Click the On button. 5. Click the Use Enhanced Dictation check box if you want to use dictation when you don’t have an Internet connection.
Note that it may take up to an hour for everything to download, so only check this box when you’ve got fast, reliable Internet access.
6. (Optional) Choose a keyboard shortcut to toggle dictation on and off without opening System Preferences. I use Control + Option + Command + D (for Dictation).
7. Choose a microphone by clicking the little inverted caret below the microphone icon and selecting the mic you want to use. The mic icon is your audio level meter; make a loud noise like a clap or a whoop and watch the lights bounce up and down.
Now, to dictate, launch your favorite word processor and turn on dictation. Start talking and watch the words appear on your screen like magic.
You can also edit text and control your Mac by voice. Here’s how:
1. Launch System Preferences.
2. Click the Accessibility icon.
3. Click Dictation in the list on the left.
4. Click the Dictation Commands button.
5. Click the Enable Advanced Commands checkbox.
Now you can speak advanced commands such as: select the next or previous word, sentence or paragraph; go to the beginning or end of a word, sentence, paragraph; undo; redo; cut, copy or paste. You can even switch to or launch applications by voice.
While the macOS version is not as powerful and lacks many of Dragon’s advanced features, it works well enough for occasional use, and you can’t beat the price — it’s free.