I also offer an adjoining video blog on this topic. To top it off, you can even create your own commands. Other advanced tasks can also be enabled such as switching apps, navigating in windows, or searching using Spotlight. For instance, you can say commands to open an application (e.g., “open mail”), search the internet (e.g., “search global warming”), and ask Siri a question (e.g., “start Siri”). When this feature is enabled, you can use spoken commands to perform tasks on the Mac. I find that most students can learn it quite quickly. There is a little bit of a learning curve, as one needs to get comfortable speaking clearly, verbalizing punctuation, pausing between ideas, and gaining proficiency with voice commands. Why is Dictation a Great Option for Individuals with Dyslexia?ĭictation is a great option for individuals with dyslexia, because they can focus on ideas and not be distracted by spelling or typing. Again, to make it easy for you, I created a downloadable document with many of the common commands. One should note, however, that punctuation needs to be verbalized as well as other directives such as formatting, mathematical symbols, emoticons, currency and some symbols.

When you’re done, say “Stop dictating” or press the dictation keyboard shortcut - (default is select fn key twice)ĭictation is a great way for users to capture the spoken word as text on the screen.

You can also conduct a specific search by saying, “How do I ?” For example, you can say “How do I select text?” to see commands related to highlighting text. When dictation is enabled, you can also display a list of commands by simply saying, “ Show commands.” This will trigger a menu box of dictation commands that will appear on your screen (as seen in the image to the right). I limited it to two pages, so that it could be printed on a single piece of paper (front and back). To make it easy for you, I created a downloadable document with many of the common commands. There is a comprehensive list of commands that are worth committing to memory or having handy on a printout when using this accessibility tool.

Activate dictation on mac