How to Use Dictation for Voice Typing in macOS

If you are a slow typist or suffer from repetitive strain injuries (RSI), writing a long essay or email can be an agonizing experience. Fortunately, macOS includes a highly accurate, built-in Dictation feature that leverages advanced speech recognition to convert your spoken words directly into text. It works natively across the entire operating system, meaning you can dictate emails in Apple Mail, write documents in Microsoft Word, or even compose messages in Slack without installing any third-party software.

How to Enable Dictation

Before you can use voice typing, you must ensure the feature is activated in your system settings and configured for your language.

1. Click the Apple Logo in the absolute top-left corner of your screen.
2. Select System Settings… (or System Preferences on older versions of macOS).
3. Scroll down the left-hand sidebar and click on Keyboard.
4. Locate the “Dictation” section on the right side of the window.
5. Toggle the switch next to Dictation to the ON position.
6. A prompt may appear asking if you want to enable the feature. Click Enable.
7. Verify that the Language drop-down menu is set to your correct dialect (e.g., English (UK)).

How to Start Voice Typing

Once enabled, you can summon the dictation tool instantly at any time using a global keyboard shortcut.

1. Open any application where you would normally type (e.g., TextEdit, Safari, or Mail).
2. Click inside the text box so your blinking cursor appears.
3. Press the Microphone key (usually located on the F5 key on modern Mac keyboards). If you do not have a dedicated microphone key, the default shortcut is to press the Control key twice in rapid succession.
4. A small microphone icon will appear on your screen, indicating that the Mac is actively listening.
5. Speak clearly into your Mac’s microphone. Your words will appear on the screen in real-time as you speak.
6. When you are finished, press the Microphone key (or double-press Control) again to stop listening.

How to Dictate Punctuation

The dictation engine is smart, but it cannot automatically guess where your sentences end. You must explicitly speak the punctuation marks out loud as you dictate.

• To end a sentence, say “period” or “full stop”.
• To add a pause, say “comma”.
• To ask a question, say “question mark”.
• To start a new paragraph, say “new paragraph”.

For example, if you say: “Hello John comma new paragraph The project is finally finished exclamation mark”, macOS will correctly format it as:

Hello John,
The project is finally finished!