System preferences 2
The setup I use is below.
Ensure Dictation is turned on.
The standard version relies on an internet connection. Your voice is sent to Apple servers that convert to text and send back. You must be online to use.
If Enhanced Dictation is checked the conversion software will be downloaded to your drive so it will still work if you are offline. The first time you check this box the download will begin. (Please refrain from downloading in class.)
Select Language. Note the shortcut. You can change it if you wish.
Ensure Dictation is turned on.
The standard version relies on an internet connection. Your voice is sent to Apple servers that convert to text and send back. You must be online to use.
If Enhanced Dictation is checked the conversion software will be downloaded to your drive so it will still work if you are offline. The first time you check this box the download will begin. (Please refrain from downloading in class.)
Select Language. Note the shortcut. You can change it if you wish.
- Place the insertion point where you want the text to appear
- Press the Function key ( fn - bottom left of keyboard ).
- Speak clearly and slowly. Speak the punctuation as required,, eg, blah blah blah comma blah blah blah full stop new para
blah blah blah open quote blah blah blah close quote balh blah
Mac Basics: Dictation lets you speak text instead of typing
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT202584
Use these steps to start dictating:
Enhanced Dictation
With Enhanced Dictation, text appears as you speak. This allows you to dictate continuously. Enhanced Dictation automatically stops listening when you switch to another window, press the Fn key again, or click Done.
Enhanced Dictation in OS X Mavericks and Yosemite also let you dictate without an active Internet connection. To use Dictation when you're offline, enable Enhanced Dictation in the Dictation & Speech pane of System Preferences while you are still connected to the Internet.
The first time you turn on Enhanced Dictation, your Mac downloads content that allows Dictation to work offline. The amount of free disk space required to download this content varies depending on the language you're using. After the additional software downloads, you can use Dictation even when an Internet connection isn't available.
Dictation requires an Internet connection in Mountain Lion
If you're using OS X Mountain Lion, you need to be connected to the Internet in order to use Dictation. If your Internet connection is slow, it could cause delays between when you speak a word and when the word appears in a text field. If you're at a business or school and you have a proxy server on your network, Dictation might not be able to connect to the Internet. Have your network administrator refer to "Well known TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products" to learn which network ports Dictation uses.
Dictating commands
Dictation understands basic text-related commands such as “all caps,” “new paragraph,” and “new line.”
When you say “period,” “comma,” “question mark,” or “exclamation point,” Dictation adds that punctuation in the current text field. When speaking a calendar date (like “January 30, 1983”) you do not have to say "comma". The comma is automatically detected and entered for you.
You can also insert emoticons into a text field by saying "smiley face" or "frowny face".
For a list of Dictation commands see this article. You can also enable additional commands in OS X Yosemite.
Accents, dialects and languages
The more you use Dictation, the better it understands you. Dictation learns the characteristics of your voice and adapts to your accent. For best results, select your dialect from the Language menu in the Dictation pane of System Preferences. Note that some languages (such as English) have multiple options available to choose from.
You can select which language to use for Dictation in the Dictation and Speech pane of System Preferences. If you don't see your language listed, you can add it. Make sure you are connected to the Internet, then follow these steps to add or remove a language for Dictation.
Dictation in OS X Mountain Lion and later supports English (U.S., UK, and Australia), French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Canadian English, Canadian French, and Italian. Enhanced Dictation supports even more languages. To see a complete list, enable Enhanced Dictation and select Add Language from the Language menu.
Learn more
You can also speak to your Mac to make it perform certain actions, like selecting text, or moving to the top of a document. Search for Dictation Commands in Mac Help for more information about how you can tell your Mac what you want it to do.
About Dictation and privacy
When you use Dictation, you can choose to have either your Mac or Apple’s servers perform the speech recognition for you. If you use Mac-based Dictation (Enhanced Dictation), your computer will convert what you say into text without sending your dictated speech to Apple.
If you use server-based Dictation, the things you dictate will be recorded and sent to Apple to convert what you say into text and your computer will also send Apple other information, such as your name and nickname; and the names, nicknames, and relationship with you (for example, “my dad”) of your address book contacts (collectively, your “User Data”). All of this data is used to help the dictation feature understand you better and recognize what you say. It is not linked to other data that Apple may have from your use of other Apple services.
Information collected by Apple is treated in accordance with Apple's Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy.
You can choose to turn off or change your preferences for Dictation at any time by going to the Dictation & Speech pane within System Preferences. If you turn off Dictation, or switch from using server-based Dictation to Mac-based Dictation (Enhanced Dictation), Apple will delete your User Data, as well as your recent voice input data, from Apple’s servers. Older voice input data that has been disassociated from you may be retained for a period of time to generally improve Dictation and Siri functionality in Apple products and services. This voice input data may include audio files and transcripts of what you said and related diagnostic data, such as hardware and operating system specifications and performance statistics.
You can restrict access to the Dictation feature on your computer in the Parental Controls pane of System Preferences.
Apple - detailed support - http://help.apple.com/garageband/mac/10.1/
OS X Yosemite: Use Dictation Commands to tell your Mac what to do
You can tell your Mac to perform certain actions by using Dictation Commands.
Dictation lets you speak text to your Mac instead of typing. What you say is turned into text in your documents. In addition to Dictation, you can speak commands to your Mac using Dictation Commands.
Enable Dictation Commands
Before you can tell your Mac what you want it to do, you need to turn on Dictation Commands. Use these steps to get started:
Once you've enabled Dictation Commands, you can speak any of the items in this list to perform the related action. Press the Fn key twice, then say a command to make it happen.
As a shortcut, you can speak the command "Show commands" to see a list of the commands you can say.
Learn More
You can learn more about Dictation by clicking the Help button in the Dictation pane of System Preferences, or by searching for "Dictation" in Mac Help. The following resources also have more information about Dictation:
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT202584
Use these steps to start dictating:
- Click a text field or document window where you want to start typing.
- Press the fn (Function) key twice, or choose Edit > Start Dictation.
- Dictate (speak) what you want your Mac to type.
- When finished, click Done or press the fn key again. Your spoken words then appear in the text field.
- If the input meter does not fill when you speak, check that your microphone and sound input are set up correctly.
- If the input meter fills more than half of the microphone icon, there might be too much background noise, and Dictation might be less accurate.
- If the input meter barely fills when you speak, try moving closer to the microphone or speaking louder.
Enhanced Dictation
With Enhanced Dictation, text appears as you speak. This allows you to dictate continuously. Enhanced Dictation automatically stops listening when you switch to another window, press the Fn key again, or click Done.
Enhanced Dictation in OS X Mavericks and Yosemite also let you dictate without an active Internet connection. To use Dictation when you're offline, enable Enhanced Dictation in the Dictation & Speech pane of System Preferences while you are still connected to the Internet.
The first time you turn on Enhanced Dictation, your Mac downloads content that allows Dictation to work offline. The amount of free disk space required to download this content varies depending on the language you're using. After the additional software downloads, you can use Dictation even when an Internet connection isn't available.
Dictation requires an Internet connection in Mountain Lion
If you're using OS X Mountain Lion, you need to be connected to the Internet in order to use Dictation. If your Internet connection is slow, it could cause delays between when you speak a word and when the word appears in a text field. If you're at a business or school and you have a proxy server on your network, Dictation might not be able to connect to the Internet. Have your network administrator refer to "Well known TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products" to learn which network ports Dictation uses.
Dictating commands
Dictation understands basic text-related commands such as “all caps,” “new paragraph,” and “new line.”
When you say “period,” “comma,” “question mark,” or “exclamation point,” Dictation adds that punctuation in the current text field. When speaking a calendar date (like “January 30, 1983”) you do not have to say "comma". The comma is automatically detected and entered for you.
You can also insert emoticons into a text field by saying "smiley face" or "frowny face".
For a list of Dictation commands see this article. You can also enable additional commands in OS X Yosemite.
Accents, dialects and languages
The more you use Dictation, the better it understands you. Dictation learns the characteristics of your voice and adapts to your accent. For best results, select your dialect from the Language menu in the Dictation pane of System Preferences. Note that some languages (such as English) have multiple options available to choose from.
You can select which language to use for Dictation in the Dictation and Speech pane of System Preferences. If you don't see your language listed, you can add it. Make sure you are connected to the Internet, then follow these steps to add or remove a language for Dictation.
- From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
- Click the Dictation & Speech icon.
- Choose Add Language. from the Language pop-up menu.
- Select any languages you want to add. Deselect languages you no longer want to use.
Dictation in OS X Mountain Lion and later supports English (U.S., UK, and Australia), French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Canadian English, Canadian French, and Italian. Enhanced Dictation supports even more languages. To see a complete list, enable Enhanced Dictation and select Add Language from the Language menu.
Learn more
You can also speak to your Mac to make it perform certain actions, like selecting text, or moving to the top of a document. Search for Dictation Commands in Mac Help for more information about how you can tell your Mac what you want it to do.
About Dictation and privacy
When you use Dictation, you can choose to have either your Mac or Apple’s servers perform the speech recognition for you. If you use Mac-based Dictation (Enhanced Dictation), your computer will convert what you say into text without sending your dictated speech to Apple.
If you use server-based Dictation, the things you dictate will be recorded and sent to Apple to convert what you say into text and your computer will also send Apple other information, such as your name and nickname; and the names, nicknames, and relationship with you (for example, “my dad”) of your address book contacts (collectively, your “User Data”). All of this data is used to help the dictation feature understand you better and recognize what you say. It is not linked to other data that Apple may have from your use of other Apple services.
Information collected by Apple is treated in accordance with Apple's Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy.
You can choose to turn off or change your preferences for Dictation at any time by going to the Dictation & Speech pane within System Preferences. If you turn off Dictation, or switch from using server-based Dictation to Mac-based Dictation (Enhanced Dictation), Apple will delete your User Data, as well as your recent voice input data, from Apple’s servers. Older voice input data that has been disassociated from you may be retained for a period of time to generally improve Dictation and Siri functionality in Apple products and services. This voice input data may include audio files and transcripts of what you said and related diagnostic data, such as hardware and operating system specifications and performance statistics.
You can restrict access to the Dictation feature on your computer in the Parental Controls pane of System Preferences.
Apple - detailed support - http://help.apple.com/garageband/mac/10.1/
OS X Yosemite: Use Dictation Commands to tell your Mac what to do
You can tell your Mac to perform certain actions by using Dictation Commands.
Dictation lets you speak text to your Mac instead of typing. What you say is turned into text in your documents. In addition to Dictation, you can speak commands to your Mac using Dictation Commands.
Enable Dictation Commands
Before you can tell your Mac what you want it to do, you need to turn on Dictation Commands. Use these steps to get started:
- Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
- Click the Dictation & Speech icon.
- Click On to enable Dictation.
- Next, select the option to use Enhanced Dictation. Wait a few minutes for your Mac to download related software to enable this feature.
- Choose Accessibility from the View menu.
- Choose Dictation from the list on the left side of the Accessibility pane.
- Click the Dictation Commands button. You can see a list of available commands in the Dictation Commands sheet.
- A starting set of commands are enabled by default. Additional speakable items like "Open document" and "Click item" are available by enabling advanced commands using these next steps:
- Select (check) the option to "Enable advanced commands" in the Dictation Commands sheet that appears.
- Click Done.
- When you enable advanced commands, you can also create your own commands by clicking the Add Command (+) button. This lets you link a spoken phrase to an app, a menu item, a keyboard shortcut, or an Automator workflow.
Once you've enabled Dictation Commands, you can speak any of the items in this list to perform the related action. Press the Fn key twice, then say a command to make it happen.
As a shortcut, you can speak the command "Show commands" to see a list of the commands you can say.
Learn More
You can learn more about Dictation by clicking the Help button in the Dictation pane of System Preferences, or by searching for "Dictation" in Mac Help. The following resources also have more information about Dictation: