HOW TO | USE DICTATION ON YOUR MAC
1 Enable Dictation
In your text-editing app, choose Edit > Start Dictation and confirm you want to turn it on. To use it offline, tick Use Enhanced Dictation and wait for files to be downloaded. Regular Dictation may transmit data to Apple – mainly contact names – to aid in spelling them.
2 The Preferences pane
You can also enable Dictation in System Preferences, and change some of the default settings. If you’re outside the US, this is well worth doing, so go to > System Preferences, click Dictation & Speech, then click the Dictation tab and check the Language setting.
3 Choose shortcut
By default, tapping the ƒ key twice activates Dictation. This key is at the bottom-left of an iMac or MacBook keyboard but harder to find on an Extended Keyboard (look above the arrow keys), but you can change the shortcut or set up your own key combination.
4 Choose a language
The Dictation feature isn’t available in every language, but you can choose from a few, including versions of English (so ‘colour’ is spelled the way you want!). You can change languages within one document, but you need to do so before dictating the relevant text.
5 Change input source
Dictation pauses iTunes and switches off your Mac’s fan to pick up your voice as clearly as possible. This may not be enough in a noisy environment, so you can use an external mic. Set it as the system-wide input in the Sound pane, or just for Dictation as shown above.
6 Using Dictation
Dictation is available in any app you can type in. You can activate it at any time using the Edit menu command or the shortcut you set. A mic icon appears near the text cursor. Unless you turned on Enhanced Dictation, text won’t appear until you press the Done button.
7 Using punctuation
To punctuate your text, say what you want, when you want it – ‘comma’, ‘full stop’ (or ‘period’), ‘apostrophe’, and so on. Try to be precise: ‘dash’ is different from ‘hyphen’, for example. You can also use format commands such as ‘new line’, ‘new paragraph’ or ‘caps’.
8 Correct any errors
When you’ve finished, click the Done button so that Dictation stops listening to you, or tap the shortcut key again. Any text Dictation is unsure it interpreted correctly is highlighted. Right-click this text for alternatives and options, or edit it yourself.