Nov 16, 2017 - Start by opening a Google Docs document on the screen, selecting the Tools menu, and choosing Voice typing. You can also hit a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+S on Windows and Cmd+Shift+S on a Mac. A new microphone button will appear on screen. Oct 28, 2015  How to Start Dictation by Voice Command in Mac OS X. You can test it out just about anywhere that allows for text input, including any text editor, word processor, text input form, Spotlight, web inputs in Safari and Chrome, and more. Start using Dictation as usual after you hear the chime recognition sound. Stop speaking to.

Advertisement For a long time if you wanted or needed to use a speech-to-text dictation program on your Mac, your only choices were MacSpeech Dictate (now defunct) and Nuance's iPhone apps, Dragon and Dragon Search have been available for free download for over a year now. Since then, the company has added a few other similar voice to text apps to its line.

But with the release of Mountain Lion, Apple has for the first time built text dictation into the operating system. This feature allows you to actually speak sentences into your Mac’s microphone and see them typed out for you, a lot faster than you could type what you say. Apple’s Dictation feature works similarly to how it does in the iPhone 4S. However, while the Mountain Lion Dictation feature is a welcome addition to the upgraded OS, it does have limitations you should know about, especially if you’re curious about using text dictation for longer pieces of writing.

This article explains how to use Dictation and what its limitations are. How Dictation Works In OS X 10.8, you can call up the Dictation feature in any text application on the Mac by pressing the Fn (Function) button on your keyboard. When prompted to do so, clearly speak a sentence or two of text (say the word, “period” at the end of your sentence) and then hit the Fn or Return key after you’re finished. In a second or two your words will be typed, Star Trek style, faster than you could type them manually. To add more text, just press the Fn key again. Each of your sentences will automatically begin with a capital letter. And if you speak clearly and directly, the Dictation feature can be pretty accurate most of the time.

Also, you can pause and think about what you’re going to say before you say it, and Dictation will wait. So don’t feel intimidated into speaking quickly. One of the drawbacks with using Dictation is that you must be connected to the Internet, and what you say will be recorded and sent to Apple, including other information in your computer, including the contact names (first names and nicknames) in your Address Book (renamed Contacts in Mountain Lion). Apple says that: “All of this data is used to help the dictation feature understand you better and recognize what you say. Your User Data is not linked to other data that Apple may have from your use of other Apple services.” You can disable Dictation, but when you do so, all your user data on Apple’s side will be deleted, as well as your recent voice input data. You can read the rest of the privacy policy for yourself, but apparently collecting this data makes the feature over time more accurate. Nevertheless, there should be a way to use the feature without an Internet connection.

Adobe flash player mac os x download. When To Use It Apple’s Dictation feature is highly welcomed, especially for those of us with poor typing, spelling, or hand disabilities. However, because you can’t see what you dictate until after you click the shortcut key, the Dictation feature is most useful for writing short emails, comments, tweets and notes.

It’s not useful for long pieces of writing. The most widely used dictation program for the Mac has been. With these programs, your dictations get typed immediately after you pause or come to full stop in a sentence.

You can also verbally edit your dictated text as you “write.” This cannot be done with Apple’s Dictation feature. Dragon Express does not seem to be updated yet for Mountain Lion. DragonDictate does appear to be stable on the new operating system, however. How Accurate Is It? Compared to DragonDictate, the OS X Dictation program is just as accurate, and even more so because it’s built into the operating system.