Verbatim mode

Verbatim is not raw. Spoken punctuation and symbol commands still apply, because "dash dash force" is how you say --force, and without commands a terminal is unusable by voice. Dictionary terms and file names from your project still resolve, because a misheard file name is a recognition error, not a rewrite. What verbatim switches off is judgment: no capitalizing the first word, no smart quotes, no trailing period, no filler removal that might eat a flag, and no tone.

A toggle you have to remember is a toggle you will forget, and the cost of forgetting is a broken command. Binding the mode to the frontmost app removes the decision: Terminal, iTerm, Warp, Xcode, VS Code, Cursor, and their kin are verbatim; Mail and Messages are not. The remaining edge is a prose field inside a code editor, like a commit message or a PR description, where some people want formatting back, and a per-app override is the right answer there.

On day one of any trial, dictate a command with a double dash, a quoted string, and a path into a terminal, and read it back character by character. Then dictate the same thing into a notes app and confirm it was punctuated. A tool that passes both is treating context as the signal. A tool that capitalizes your command has no verbatim mode worth the name, whatever the settings screen says.

Apple’s built-in Dictation has no verbatim switch, but you can get close by turning off its one automatic behavior and speaking every symbol. This is slow, and it shows clearly what an automatic verbatim mode saves you.

One detail matters for commands. In Apple’s command list, "hyphen" inserts the short hyphen character that flags use, while "dash" inserts a longer dash character that a shell will not accept as a flag.

1. 01 Choose Apple menu → System Settings, click Keyboard in the sidebar, and go to Dictation.
2. 02 Turn off auto-punctuation, so that no commas, periods, or question marks are inserted for you.
3. 03 Click into your terminal or editor and start dictating.
4. 04 Say "hyphen" for each hyphen in a flag. For a double hyphen, say it twice.
5. 05 Say "no space on" before a run of text that must not contain spaces, such as a path, and "no space off" after it.
6. 06 Say symbol names where you need them: "forward slash", "underscore", "vertical bar", "backslash", "asterisk".
7. 07 Read the line back character by character before you press Return.

Because of a macOS text setting, not necessarily your dictation tool. macOS has a setting called "Use smart quotes and dashes" that swaps straight quotes for typographic ones as text is entered. That is correct in prose and wrong in a command or a string in code.

The setting is at System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input. Click Edit, then turn off "Use smart quotes and dashes". Apple notes that smart quotes and dashes are not available in all apps, so the effect varies from one app to the next. Many apps also have an Edit → Substitutions menu where you can see which substitutions are active in that app.

Apple’s Voice Control has a mode for text that must be exact, and it works differently from verbatim mode. Verbatim mode still takes whole words and leaves them alone. Spelling mode takes one character at a time. Apple describes it as helpful when you need to enter a password, a web address, or another sequence of characters.

Voice Control is at System Settings → Accessibility → Voice Control. With it on, say "Spelling mode" to switch, and "Dictation mode" to return to word-by-word dictation. Standard Dictation is not available while Voice Control is on.

Use Spelling mode for a short exact string such as an identifier or an address. For a full command or a line of prose it is too slow, and word-level verbatim dictation is the better fit.