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.
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This free dictation software for Mac is a professional tool for recording and dictating. This software claims 99.5% accuracy and helps create reports, articles, books, eBooks and many others. It can be used to give commands to Mac as well. Pros of Dragon dictate.
How to enable and use Dictation
Basic dictation is essentially always enabled by default — you just need to activate it.
- Click into a text area like a document or the address bar of your web browser.
- Double-press the Fn key. A microphone will appear on your screen and if it's receiving audio, you'll see activity inside of 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.
How to change your Dictation language
Did you know that you can dictate your text in multiple languages? Here's how.
- Open System Preferences from your Dock or Applications folder.
- Click Keyboard.
- Click Dictation.
- Click the drop-down next to Language.Latest version of office for mac. If you don't see Check for Updates, run the latest version of Microsoft AutoUpdate tool, then check for updates again. Select Automatically keep Microsoft Apps up to date to receive the latest security fixes and feature improvements as soon as they become available, helping your Mac. Mar 15, 2018 The update history information for version 16.16 and earlier also applies to Office 2016 for Mac, which is also a version of Office for Mac that’s available as a one-time purchase. Older versions up to and including 16.16 can be activated with an Office 2016 for Mac volume license.
- Click Add 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.
How to enable and use Enhanced Dictation
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.
- Open System Preferences from your Dock or Applications folder.
- Click Keyboard.
- Click Dictation.
- 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.
How to change the Dictation keyboard shortcut
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.
- 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).
How to enable/disable Dictation Commands
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 the Apple menu button on the top left of your screen.
- Click System Preferences.
- Click Accessibility.
- Click Dictation in the menu on the left. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.
- Click Dictation Commands…
- Click the checkbox next to each dictation command you'd like to disable. They're all enabled by default.
- 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.
How to enable the dictation keyword phrase
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!
![Dictation for mac Dictation for mac](https://zapier.cachefly.net/storage/photos/7ca7baf91a54d4d4b8f9545c22dc17cf.png)
You have to have Enhanced Dictation enabled for this to work.
- Click the Apple menu button on the top left of your screen.
- Click System Preferences.
- Click Accessibility.Oct 28, 2019 This Mac application is an intellectual property of Microsoft. The program lies within Productivity Tools, more precisely Office Tools. The most popular versions among Microsoft Excel for Mac users are 14.0, 12.3 and 10.1. This program's bundle is identified as com.microsoft.Excel. Oct 21, 2015 Modern design: The redesigned ribbon for the Mac version of Excel borrows the look and feel of its Windows counterpart, presenting tools and formatting options in much the same way as Excel for Windows does. Excel also recommends appropriate charts based on spreadsheet data. Free excel for mac. Mar 26, 2014 Download Microsoft Excel and get the best way to create, organize and manage data and spreadsheets from your iPhone or iPad. To create or edit documents, sign in with a free Microsoft account on devices with a screen size smaller than 10.1 inches. Jan 18, 2017 8/10 (54 votes) - Download Microsoft Excel Mac Free. Microsoft Excel 2016 for Mac is the tool belonging to Microsoft Office to deal with large volumes of numerical data with great comfort and flexibility. If we talk about spreadsheets, we definitely need to mention the program par excellence. Microsoft excel for mac free. Most people looking for Microsoft excel for mac free downloaded: Microsoft Excel. 3.3 on 41 votes. Excel for Mac 2011 helps you analyze, organize, and manage all your data and lists. Then save, edit, and share online. Microsoft Office 2008.
- Click Dictation in the menu on the left. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.
- Click the checkbox next to Enable the dictation keyword phrase.
- 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.
How to enable a sound when a command is recognized
You have to have Enhanced Dictation enabled for this to work.
- Click the Apple menu button on the top left of your screen.
- Click System Preferences.
- Click Accessibility.
- Click Dictation in the menu on the left. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.
- Click the checkbox next to Play sound when command is recognized.
How to enable/disable output mute during dictation
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 the Apple menu button on the top left of your screen.
- Click System Preferences.
- Click Accessibility.
- Click Dictation in the menu on the left. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.
- Click the checkbox next to Mute audio output while dictating.
Dictation accessibility in macOS Catalina
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.
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Questions?
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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Part 1
Dictation App For Macbook Pro
1. Mountain Lion Dictation Features and functions
· Mountain Lion Dictation is free dictation software for Mac which provides easy to use recording and listening method.
· This program needs an internet connection to work and provides an onscreen keyboard with a little microphone key.
· This software allows you to easily turn the functionality on or off.
Pros of Mountain Lion Dictation
· Mountain Lion Dictation is not just very easy to use but also very user friendly.
· It provides keys on virtual keyboard for every action and this makes working on it quite simple and intuitive. This is another great point related to it.
· Another positive associated with this free dictation software for Mac is that it allows many shortcuts which save a lot of your time.
Apple Dictation
Cons of Mountain Lion Dictation
· Mountain Lion Dictation doesn’t work well when you use your Mac’s internal microphone and doesn’t offer good sound quality in this case.
Speech Recognition Software For Mac
· Another negative associated with it is that you can only speak for 30 seconds at a time using the dictation feature on this software.
· Mountain Lion Dictation doesn’t offer heavy duty conversion of speech to text and works only when there is an active internet connection.
User reviews:
- Mountain Lion dictationdoes a pretty decent job of recognizing people’s voices. It can differentiate between U.S, UK and Australian English speakers. It can also automatically detectFrench, German and Japanese
- It is important to enunciate and speak as much like a news caster as possible. If you speak words like umm or stutter a lot you’re not going to have a good time with dictation.
- This tool is good for drafting documents, emails or articles, which is exactly what I’m doing right now, but if you want to rely on dictation for serious work you’re going to want to plunk down the cash for Dragon Dictate.http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/10/14/top-5-things-to-do-when-you-get-your-iphone-4s-setup-and-security/