Dictation commands

You say a command in the flow of your sentence, with no pause or trigger word. Dictation replaces the command with the mark or the formatting.

On a Mac with Apple silicon, you can also keep typing while you dictate, which is a quick way to fix a mark by hand.

1. 01 Choose Apple menu → System Settings, click Keyboard in the sidebar, go to Dictation, and turn it on.
2. 02 Click where you want the text to go.
3. 03 Press the Microphone key if your keyboard has one, use the Dictation keyboard shortcut, or choose Edit → Start Dictation.
4. 04 Speak, and name the marks as you go, for example "dear Sam comma new paragraph thanks for the notes period".
5. 05 Press Escape, the Microphone key, or the Dictation shortcut to stop. Dictation also stops when no speech is detected for 30 seconds.

These are the commands most people need. Each one is the plain name of the mark. Apple lists four ways to say the sentence-ending dot: period, point, dot, or full stop.

• Sentence marks: comma, period, question mark, exclamation mark, colon, semicolon, ellipsis.
• Quotes and joins: quote and end quote, begin single quote and end single quote, apostrophe, hyphen, dash.
• Pairs: open and close parenthesis, open and close square bracket, open and close brace, open and close angle bracket.
• Typography: ampersand, asterisk, at sign, backslash, forward slash, caret, underscore, vertical bar, percent sign, degree sign, and hashtag or pound sign.
• Math and currency: equal sign, plus sign, minus sign, multiplication sign, greater than sign, less than sign, dollar sign, cent sign, euro sign, yen sign, pound sterling sign.
• Other: copyright sign, registered sign, trademark sign, and emoticons such as smiley face, frowny face, and winky face.

Formatting commands change how the next word or phrase is written. Apple notes that "new line" is the same as pressing Return once and "new paragraph" is the same as pressing it twice, and that the break appears when you are done dictating.

The capitalization commands come in two kinds. Some apply to the next word only. The ones ending in "on" stay active until you say the matching "off" command.

• "New line" starts a new line. "New paragraph" starts a new paragraph.
• "Tab key" moves the cursor to the next tab stop.
• "Numeral" formats the next phrase as a number. "Roman numeral" formats it as a Roman numeral.
• "No space on" formats the next phrase without spaces. "No space off" resumes default spacing.
• "Caps on" formats the next phrase in title case. "Caps off" resumes the default case.
• "All caps" formats the next word in capitals. "All caps on" and "all caps off" do the same for a phrase.

Apple says that in some languages you can insert emoji using dictation. You say the name of the emoji followed by the word "emoji". Its macOS Feature Availability page lists the supported languages under "Dictation: Dictate Emoji".

1. 01 Start Dictation in any text field.
2. 02 Say the name of the emoji and then the word "emoji", for example "heart emoji" or "car emoji".
3. 03 Carry on dictating the rest of your sentence.
4. 04 If nothing appears, check that your dictation language supports emoji, or press Fn-E to open the Character Viewer and pick one by hand.

Dictation commands only insert characters and formatting. They cannot select text, delete a word, or click a button. For that, Apple points to Voice Control, the accessibility feature for controlling a Mac by voice, which has its own text editing commands such as "Replace cat with dog".

You cannot mix the two. When Voice Control is on, you use Voice Control to dictate text, and standard macOS Dictation is not available. The list of what you can say in Voice Control is under System Settings → Accessibility → Voice Control → Commands.

When Dictation types the word "comma" instead of the mark, or ignores a command, check the following.

• Use Apple’s exact wording. The list says "open parenthesis", "end quote", and "all caps", and a different phrasing may be typed as plain words.
• Check the dictation language. Choose the correct language and region under System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation → Languages.
• Emoji by name work only in some languages, and automatic punctuation only in supported languages.
• Wait until you stop dictating before you judge a line break. A new line or new paragraph appears when you are done.
• Click a word underlined in blue to choose an alternative. Dictation marks text it is unsure about that way.
• Reduce background noise and speak at a normal volume, or use a headset microphone.