- Your Mac comes with built-in native software that will translate what you say to text
- We almost always got an accurate transcript, but there were also some errors.
- In what cases can this be a tool to help you with your work?
If you have been working for several hours, and you are already tired of writing, activating dictation on Mac can be a very good idea. In the end, these technologies get better every day, and it won’t be long until we can finally trust their “talent” to transcribe. What are the steps to enable this feature?
You may not know it, but your Mac comes with built-in native software that will translate what you say to text. You can use it anywhere in MacOS that text can be entered, so there are no limitations.
Here’s a guide to some of the key procedures for this feature.
How to enable dictation on a Mac?
To start using dictation on your Mac, you must enable it first. By default, dictation is not enabled on MacOS. Once enabled, you can also set a keyboard shortcut to activate dictation.
- Click on the Apple icon in the menu bar
- Select System Settings
- In the menu on the left, select Keyboard
- Scroll down to the Dictation section
- Turn on “Use direct wherever I can type text”
- Set keyboard language, microphone font, and auto punctuation
- Select a shortcut you want to use to activate dictation from the Shortcut menu
- When you have finished, close the System Configuration, with the keyboard ready to be used
Once you’ve enabled dictation on your Mac, it’s ready to use. You can launch it directly from a shortcut if you have configured it, or from the menu bar if you know you will only use it occasionally.
So you can start dictation on Mac
Assuming you’ve already been able to activate dictation on Mac, the next thing to do is to click where the text should be. Apple reports that you can ask him to transcribe what you say in any application or web that supports text.
By tapping on the space to write, press the keyboard shortcut or launch the dictation as you prefer. Regardless of what your favorite trick is to do it, the microphone icon will appear which indicates that you are being heard by the system. You can start dictating, and remember that after 30 seconds of silence, that dictation will end and you will have to start another repeating the steps above.
Dictation suggestions on Mac
Here are some tips that you should learn if you want your texts to look exactly the way you want.
As you speak, your Mac will input the text it receives as audio. If you are going to add signs such as commas, you only have to say “comma” while you are dictating. The same “point apart” or “skip line”.
You have to learn to relate to him, and you can ask him to change from lowercase to uppercase and vice versa. Also, if you have a Mac with Apple Silicon, you can insert emojis with your voicelike “kiss emoji”.
How good is dictation on Mac?
This is a question that you are surely asking yourself since we started talking about the subject. In our case, we almost always got an exact transcript of what we had said. But there were also certain errors. These failures are common, because after all it is a technology that continues to advance little by little.
Other than that, it generally works fine, adding the commas and signs where they actually go. When you have to write long texts, it could make your task much easier and leave only corrections pending.
Should you use dictation on Mac?
The answer here is much more personal, and will depend on what your goals are and what you want to use it for. Previously we gave you a hint regarding when to use it, and that is if you have to write very long texts.
We recommend that you first take care of turn on dictation on your Mac and try it out, since only in this way will you know for sure if it is a function that can be of help to you. Many users are already adopting it on a daily basis.
How has your experience been with dictation on Mac? Would you advise others to enable it?
