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Typing is not for everyone. If your fingers are clumsy or difficult to spell, typing may be the least favorite part of your computer. Fortunately, you can use the built-in dictation software on Mac to say what you want to type. Https://www.macz.com/news/4936.html

Unlike voice control (Apple's full-featured accessibility tool), dictation is easy to use. It is also so accurate in translating sounds that some of the best dictation software developers, such as Dragon Dictate, no longer compete for their own dictation applications for Mac.

How to use dictation on Mac

Double-click the Fn button to begin dictation on Mac. You should see the microphone icon appear or hear a macOS confirmation tone. If this is the first time you have used dictation, click OK in the pop-up window to confirm that you want to use it.

After you activate the dictation function, start saying what you want to type to see it on the screen. Dictation ignores the pause in the voice and allows you to take the time to sort out your thoughts. However, this does mean that you need to specify your own punctuation, which we will explain below.

Apple recommends that you make a decision in 40 seconds or less. This prevents Mac from falling behind because you speak much faster than what you say.

You can specify text anywhere you normally type on the Mac. This includes writing documentation, using the Spotlight or search bar, entering a URL, and composing an email. If it sounds useful, you may also want to take a look at these dictation applications for Android phones.

Stop the command using any of the following methods:

Press Fn hit report again and click finish under the microphone.

When Mac processes the word you specify, the underscore appears as an underscore. After you stop the commands, they will be reformatted, and all words that are uncertain in your Mac will be underlined in blue. Click these words to select an alternative, or enter them manually if you enter them incorrectly.

The more times you use Dictation, the better Mac will understand your voice. This means that you will see fewer errors, and words underlined in blue will appear less frequently.

How to add punctuation and format dictation format

You may need to add punctuation to your dictation to make sure it is in the correct format. This is easy to do by indicating the text by saying the specific punctuation to be added.

For example, specify the following text:

Hello, my name is Dan. How are you?

You need to say:

Hello comma my name is Dan period how are you question mark

Apple provides a long list of more than 50 punctuation symbols, printed symbols, currency symbols, mathematical symbols and voice commands in the macOS user Guide that you can use with Dictation. Visit the voice command page of Apple to see the list for yourself.

In addition to adding punctuation, you can use a small set of voice commands to change the format of the command text on the Mac. These commands include uppercase letters, newline characters, and even input without spaces.

Say the following voice commands to format the text in dictation format:

New line: equivalent to pressing Return key once New paragraph: equivalent to pressing Return key twice on / off uppercase letters: type the following words in title uppercase on / off all uppercase letters: type the following words without spaces on / off in all uppercase letters: type the following word "no spaces" (for website URL) to solve dictation problems on Mac

Dictation is a fairly simple tool, but it doesn't always work. There are different issues that may prevent you from using dictation on Mac. What they are and how to fix them.

Change dictation shortcuts

If double-clicking the Fn button does not respond, you may have changed the Dictation shortcut on Mac. You can change this shortcut to whatever you like, or check what the new shortcut is, and then use it instead.

To do this, open system preferences and go to Keyboard > Dictation. Open the shortcuts drop-down menu and select the dictation shortcut you want to use. To create your own content, click customize, and then press the keyboard shortcut you want.

Test your Internet connection

Your Mac requires a valid Internet connection to use dictation. This is because Apple uses the latest language data to process your voice on the server rather than locally on the Mac.

If you do not have an Internet connection, the microphone icon will appear with three dots, but it will disappear and you will not be able to start dictation.

To ensure that your Internet connection is working, try streaming video over the YouTube. To resolve the connectivity problem, restart the Wi-Fi router and follow our steps to reconnect Mac to Wi-Fi. Please contact your Internet service provider for more assistance.

Select another microphone to use

As you said, you should see a white bar in the microphone icon that fluctuates with the loudness of the sound. This displays the microphone input on the Mac. If there is no sound in the microphone, Mac cannot hear you. You need to use another microphone to fix it.

Enter system preferences > Keyboard > dictation. Open the drop-down menu below the microphone on the left side of the window to select a different microphone. If you cannot see the microphone, make sure that the latest driver is connected.

Change the dictation language

To dictate in another language, you need to add the language in system preferences, and then select it from the dictation icon. Using the wrong language can lead to many errors because dictation will use regional spelling or replace what you say with words with similar sounds in another language.

In system preferences, go to Keyboard > dictation, and then open the language drop-down menu. Click add language, and then check the box next to any language you want to use. If your language is spoken in more than one country, be sure to choose the appropriate region.

The next time you activate dictation, you should see the current language below the microphone icon. Click it to change to another dictation language.

How to make dictation as private as possible

Dictation communicates with Apple's server to convert your voice into text. This means that it will never be completely private, as indicated by the pop-up message that appears when dictation is first enabled. That is, you can still take some steps to recover as much dictation privacy as possible.

To change the data used by dictation, open system preferences, and then click Security and Privacy. Go to the Privacy tab and scroll down to select Analytics&Improvements in the sidebar. Disable the improve Siri and dictation option to prevent Apple from storing or viewing your future dictation records.

Apple usually does this to help improve dictation. Even if this option is disabled, you still need to delete existing recordings from Apple's server. Go to system preferences > Siri, and then click remove Siri and Dictation History.

Use voice control to do more processing of voice

Although many people confuse the two, dictation and voice control are two separate functions on Mac. As we explained, dictation allows you to convert voice to text and add punctuation and line breaks if necessary. However, voice control can unlock the entire voice command that controls Mac.

If you want to save documents, switch applications, open menus, and use voice for more operations, you need to use voice control. This is primarily an accessibility tool; it allows anyone to use their own voice to control Mac.

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