20 Voice Control Dictation Tips

Dictation on the Mac is pretty powerful as long as you are using Voice Control Dictation instead of standard Dictation and you know some of the commands you can use to perfect your text.

Comments: 14 Responses to “20 Voice Control Dictation Tips”

    Jack Gilmore
    2 years ago

    with voice control dictation you can simultaneously use the keyboard and trackpad to move around the text doing edits/insertions, etc., and the dictation does not shut off. (I think Ventura may be required) This feature makes it especially effective and on a par with dictation offered by Microsoft. However, with standard dictation it is much more limiting because the moment you touch the keyboard or trackpad dictation shuts off. It's really a key difference.

    2 years ago

    Jack: Ventura isn't required. Voice Control dictation has always allowed keyboard input at the same time.

    Will
    2 years ago

    Thank you Gary. This is really helpful. I use dictation a great deal and sometimes do so to read a piece of text and copy it into a document. Other times I speak with my eyes closed so that I can concentrate on what I want to say. However, if there are errors in the text that has been dictated, it can be helpful to use the record function on another device at the same time so there is a way of retrieving my actual words.

    Lawrence j Diggs
    2 years ago

    Thanks. This was helpful.

    Ray Whitehead
    2 years ago

    Gary, following your suggestion I got dictation to work, BUT if I leave it and come back an hour later it won't work without a reboot. After the reboot it will continue working until I leave it for a while. Sounds crazy. Any thoughts as to how I might proceed?

    2 years ago

    Ray: Have you tried other things like turning it off and on again (in Settings, not just putting it to sleep)?

    Geoff
    2 years ago

    One of the most informative and helpful videos Gary - I've been wasting a lot of type finger typing for text or commands - maybe because I, like I sure a lot of others, don't investigate the functionality provided in " Accessibility". Many thanks

    David Van Nuys
    2 years ago

    Thanks, Gary! This is the most valuable video yet!

    Barry Standley
    2 years ago

    My old Dragon Dictation app gave up the ghost this past week, and that company no longer makes a version for the Mac. Thanks to this video I am now using the second dictation method described, through Voice Control, and I find it to be — so far — just about equivalent to Dragon. With the dictation I've done tonight the only bug I have found has been an absence of capitalization even though I've given the command to do that. It doesn't do it all the time, just on some words. Thank you Gary!

    Tom Merrill
    2 years ago

    Gary, there's commands I use that are missing or didn't work as described.
    1. When I say "New Line" or "New Paragraph" it automatically carriage returns 1 or 2 respectively. Great help in iMessage or Zoom chat where typing the carriage return "Sends" that message.
    2. Your description of forcing a numeral (1) vs the word spelled out (one) didn't work for me.
    3. 3rd issue - voice typing the dash (-). Works here but only infrequently in IOS. Tried "Hyphen" which works for a while then no more

    Paul Sonnenberg
    1 year ago

    Is it possible to use Voice Control WITHOUT also activating dictation? I keep coming back to fields and finding all the curse words I directed at my dogs. I almost changed the title of my entire department's Quip journal to "I hate $@&*! Quip why the $@&*! can't we use something else!"

    1 year ago

    Paul: No way to have it set up like that.

    Abdullah
    1 year ago

    hello, (DELETE THAT ) is not responding, when I say the word it keeps typing and it doesn't delete. I tried to (delete the previous ) one, but It's not responding, It keeps typing please assist.

    1 year ago

    Abdullah: Sorry, not sure why it isn't working for you.

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