Is is possible to create custom voice commands to control my Mac? And I don’t mean using Siri for everything!

Our huge Siri feature in this issue (p46) demonstrates the extensive range of commands that you can issue to your Mac’s digital personal assistant, but we understand what you mean. You will need to go to System Preferences >accessibility and then scroll down through the sidebar to the ‘Motor’ section. Once there, click on the ‘Voice Control’ option and then tick the ‘Enable Voice Control’ field to switch it on. You’ll know that it has been activated as a floating microphone box will appear on your desktop that you can drag to reposition where you want.

1 Click the option

Go to System Preferences> Accessibility >voice Control and then click on the ‘Commands’ option. All of the current voice commands will now be listed.

2 Create new commands

You can untick any voice commands from the list that you don’t intend to use. If you want to create a new voice command then click on the ‘+’ icon to get started.

3 Add command

Start off by typing your preferred voice command into the ‘When I Say’ field and then, if it’s a general command, leave the ‘Any Application’ menu free.

4 Run a workflow

Click on the menu next to ‘Perform’ and either select an existing command from the list or highlight ‘Run Workflow’ to view another sub-menu of options.

5 Create workflow

If no existing options suit, select ‘Other’ and you will be able to choose a particular app to open, for example. For our “Make music” command we chose to open Garageband.