Choose Apple () menu System Preferences, click Keyboard, then click Dictation. Turn on Dictation and choose from these Dictation options:. Choose whether to use, which lets you use dictation when you're not connected to the Internet. Choose your language and dialect. Some languages, such as English, have multiple dialects. Choose the keyboard shortcut you will use to start start dictating.
Choose your preferred microphone from the pop-up menu below the microphone icon. In macOS Sierra, you can to “turn on Dictation” for you. Siri isn't the same as Dictation, but you can ask Siri to compose short messages, such as email and text messages. Go to a document or other text field and place the insertion point where you want your dictated text to appear. Press the keyboard shortcut for starting dictation, or choose Edit Start Dictation. The default shortcut is Fn Fn (press the Fn key twice).
When your Mac is listening, it displays a microphone to the left or right of the page, aligned with the insertion point. If you turn on, the microphone appears in the lower-right corner of your screen, and you can drag it to another position. When your Mac can hear you, the input meter inside the microphone rises and falls as you speak. Speak the words that you want your Mac to type. Dictation learns the characteristics of your voice and adapts to your accent, so the more you use it, the better it understands you.
If it doesn't understand you,. To stop dictating, click Done below the microphone icon, press Fn once, or switch to another window.
Speak the following words to enter punctuation or other characters. These may vary by language or dialect. Enhanced Dictation is available in OS X Mavericks v10.9 or later. With Enhanced Dictation:. You can dictate continuously.
You can dictate without being connected to the Internet. Your words might convert to text more quickly. You can to tell your Mac what to do. Without Enhanced Dictation, your spoken words and certain other data are to be converted into text and help your Mac understand what you mean. As a result, your Mac must be connected to the Internet, your words might not convert to text as quickly, and you can speak for no more than 40 seconds at a time (30 seconds in OS X Yosemite or earlier).
If you're on a business or school network that uses a proxy server, Dictation might not be able to connect to the Internet. Have your network administrator refer to the list of. To use dictation on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, tap the microphone on the onscreen keyboard, then speak. Consult your or user guide for details. If the Slow Keys or Sticky Keys feature is turned on in the Accessibility pane of System Preferences, the default keyboard shortcuts for dictation might not work. If you need to use those accessibility features, create a custom dictation shortcut: Choose Apple menu System Preferences, click Keyboard, click Dictation, then choose “Customize” from the Shortcut menu.
Control your computer by voice with speed and accuracy. Dragon speech recognition software is better than ever. Talk and your words appear on the screen. Say commands and your computer obeys. Dragon is 3x faster than typing and it's 99% accurate. Master Dragon right out of the box, and start experiencing big productivity gains immediately.
. Speech Recognition Products for the Apple User Quick Links: Dragon Dictate 3.0 with USB Microphone This is the latest version of Dragon for the Mac user.
From Nuance we offer the following: 'Accomplish more than you ever imagined possible. Input text just by speaking – up to three times faster than typing – and interact with your favorite Mac applications using only your voice.
With Dragon Dictate you can produce reports, e-mail, articles, books, research notes, online content, and more — quickly, easily, and accurately. You’ll get more done faster with less stress and more success — at home, at work, or wherever life takes you. Dragon Dictate provides amazing accuracy and requires just minutes of training to get started – it’s Simply Smarter Speech Recognition.' Features this version offers over version 2.5 include the following:. 15% improvement in accuracy.
Use of 'Express Editor' to allow dictation in otherwise incompatible applications. Improved correction methods. Digital voice recorder support.
Wideband Bluetooth support Please note: This version of Dragon Dictate requires Mac OS X 10.7 or later; OS X 10.6 or older requires Dictate 2.5, which we no longer carry. Please note: There is a known issue with Dictate 3.0 which causes problems when a user mixes their input in the same document (i.e. Voice and keyboard). Nuance has added three 'caching' commands as a workaround, but we recommend that users try to avoid using mixed input to prevent any issues. Dragon Dictate 3.0 Price: $ Microphones for the Mac User Macintosh computers have traditionally used a different microphone input jack than IBM-type personal computers. Macs use a 'Line In' jack which does not provide enough power to the usual microphone element. As a result, most ordinary headset microphones are incompatible with Macintosh computers when plugged into the microphone input jack.
With a little ingenuity, however, most microphones can be used with a Mac. Strategies include:. Using a microphone which includes its own power supply (battery powered). Using a small pre-amplifier such as the Andrea APS-100 Auxiliary Power Supply.
In this situation the microphone is plugged into the pre-amplifier which in turn is plugged into the mic input jack. Using a traditional microphone with a USB sound adapter such as those made by Andrea, Buddy and VXI. In this scenario the microphone in plugged into the adapter which in turn is plugged into a USB port on the computer. We offer a variety of microphones that can be used with the MacIntosh, virtually all sharing the characteristic of either 1) being manufactured such that it attaches to your Mac with a USB port or 2) being packaged with a separate USB Sound adapter. For each microphone or product listed below, we will let you know if anything added is needed to use it with a Mac, and if so, offer a combination product in which the microphone is bundled with whatever you need. For more information on Macintosh microphone compatibility, please visit our. For information on setting up a new microphone with Dragon Dictate, please visit our Recommended Microphones for the Mac User Dictaphone PowerMic II Although full functionality of this microphone requires use of a free third party system utility (USB Overdrive) to take advantage of the programmable buttons in the Mac environment, it is a highly accurate, noise canceling, and functional microphone for the Mac user.
Because of it's noise canceling abilities, we consider this the best overall hand-held microphone for the Mac user. MSRP: $495 Price: $ Sennheiser ME3/Andrea USB Adapter Combination This is our best selling product for speech recognition on both the Mac and PC and widely considered the most accurate and noise canceling microphone for use with a computer. MSRP: $247.95 Price: $ Olympus DR-1200 Functionally similar to the Dictaphone Powermic II, this product is a bit less expensive, has additional buttons which can be programmed, and has a track ball.
Overall we find this a significantly more comfortable product. The only downside is that the microphone input area is large and faces both up and outwards, so this product tends not to be highly rejecting of external noise. So we don't recommend use of this otherwise wonderful hand-held microphone in noisy environments.
In order to program the buttons for use on your Mac you will need the free system utility USB Overdrive (read more at the 'learn more' link). MSRP: Price: $ Andrea NC181VM USB A high quality microphone with integrated USB adapter, mute switch and sound volume control. This model has a single speaker. Price: $ Andrea NC185VM USB A high quality microphone with integrated USB adapter, mute switch and sound volume control. This model has two speakers. Price: $ VXI TalkPro USB-200 Full featured binaural USB microphone with VXI's Gentex element.
Compatible with all operating systems and speech recognition products. Includes a sophisticated noise canceling element Price: $ VXI TalkPro USB-100 This full featured monaural USB microphone is compatible with all operating systems and voice recognition products. Includes a sophisticated noise canceling element. Price: $ Microphones Useable with a Separately Purchased USB Sound Adapter: Microphones which work with a Mac when used with a separately purchased external USB sound adapter (also see the USB adapters listed below): Andrea ANC 750 High Quality binaural microphone with active noise cancellation. Price: $ Andrea ANC 700 High Quality monaural microphone with active noise canceling system.
Price: $ Radio Shack 'Sennheiser Knock-off' A Radio Shack microphone very similar to the Sennheiser ME3. Price:$ Sennheiser ME3/Andrea USB Adapter Professional quality speech recognition microphone with outstanding accuracy and noise cancellation.
L Price: $ TheBoom 'O' A very high quality monaural headset microphone with excellent accuracy and noise cancellation. Price: $ TheBoom V4 Similar to the 'O' but ear mounted and highly comfortable. Price: $ TheBoom Quiet A high quality active noise canceling headset microphone useful to both the audiophile and speech recognition software user. Price: $ VXI TalkPro Express A simple, inexpensive headset microphone. Price: $ VXI TalkPro A simple, inexpensive monaural headset microphone with VXI's translator technology.
Price: $ Sound Adapters: If you already have a microphone and are having troubles using it with your Mac or if you prefer to accomplish the analog to digital conversion outside of your computer, the use of one of these USB Adapters is ideal. Each plugs into any available USB port and accepts the standard 3.5 mm audio plugs for mic in and sound out associated with standard headset microphones. Each has been tested and works great with Apple computers.
Andrea USB Sound Adapter THIS IS THE PREFERRED SOUND ADAPTER TO USE WITH THE SENNHEISER ME3, BUT WORKS WITH ALL ANALOG MICROPHONES SOLD ON THIS SITE This is a simple and reliable sound adapter to use when you have concerns about whether your computer's internal sound card is adequate for the task. When using this adapter the analog to digital conversion occurs outside of your computer and the digital signal enters your computer through a USB slot.
Please note that this is a monaural device and directs only the microphone in signal through the USB. If you are using a microphone with speakers, you will need to engage the speaker plug directly into the computer's speaker jack. Andrea USB Sound Adapter Usual Retail: $49.95 Our Price: $ ' Buddy 7G USB Sound Adapter This is Insync Speech Technologies' latest and 7th generation USB adapter. The device is designed to replace a computer's on board sound card and is a perfect compliment to a good quality microphone when using speech recognition software. It has many features which go beyond those of it's predecessor, the 6G. Using NaturallySpeaking on a Mac with BootCamp In our opinion, this is the most reliable method of using speech recognition software on a Mac. It is, however, the least functional method if you are regularly using your Mac in the OS environment.
Boot Camp is included (at no extra cost) with all recent Apple operating system. When using Boot Camp, the hard drive on your Mac is simply divided into two partitions. The Mac OS sits on one partition and the Windows operating system sits on the other. Your machine can be booted up as either a Mac or Windows machine and when in either, it acts entirely in the manner of a native Mac or Windows machine.
The problem is that communication between the two is very minimal and it is not possible to run Windows programs from the Mac side and visa versa. There is, however, the ability to see documents on the Windows side and open them (with Mac OS programs) while running your machine from the Mac side. We have not found a way to the do opposite (open documents on the Mac side while on the Windows partition). In order to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking on your Intel Mac you will need to make a considerable investment and will require the following:. Your Intel based Mac.
Windows operating system installation disk (Windows XP or Vista). Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Good quality microphone and external USB sound adapter If you don't have the need for a Mac, this is an expensive way to go and you would be better off simply purchasing a Windows based PC.
On the other hand if you already have an Intel based Mac or if you definitely need the ability to run both Windows and Mac programs, this method is one you should consider. How does Boot Camp compare to using Fusion or Parallels on a Mac? Aside from the issue of needing to reboot to go from one operating system to another, Boot Camp offers the most stable and care-free way of running Dragon on a Mac.
Dragon appears to run ever-so-slightly slower when used with both Fusion and Parallels. And, frankly, both Fusion and Parallels are a bit 'twitchy' with the movement of sound from the Mac to Windows sides. This isn't a problem when using Boot Camp. Using NaturallySpeaking on an Intel based Macintosh using Parallels: Although a potentially costly method since it requires purchasing the Windows operating system to install on your Mac, many have found using Dragon NaturallySpeaking on an Intel based Mac using the Windows operating system set up as a 'virtual machine' using a very viable option. In our experience, this is a highly successful process and Dragon operates extremely well in the context of a virtual operating system. Requirement include:. An intel based Macintosh.
Parallels Software. Windows XP or Vista installation Disk. Dragon NaturallySpeaking. All necessary microphone hardware (we recommend using a good quality microphone and a USB adapter) The set-up process: We recommend the following method for setting up your NaturallySpeaking with Parallels (adapted from the method of 'Web air' on the ) and describe it in detail on our. NaturallySpeaking on an Intel Mac Using VMWare Fusion Fusion is a product very similar to Parallels and for those already using this, we have testing Dragon NaturallySpeaking with Fusion and it works great! Like Parallels, you might sometimes run into some issues with proper translation of sound from the Mac OS side to Windows (and Dragon) within the virtual machine, but once you've worked out these issues, you will find that Dragon works beautifully.
As is the case with its competition, using Dragon with Fusion requires the following:. An intel based Macintosh. Fusion Software. Windows XP or Vista installation Disk. Dragon NaturallySpeaking. All necessary microphone hardware (we recommend using a good quality microphone and a USB adapter) We have tested a variety of microphones using the Windows XP virtual machine with Fusion and it appears to be virtually identical to the situation we found with parallels - the issue appears to be related more to the Apple hardware than the virtual machine software. In general most microphones worked best (and often worked only) when used with an external USB sound adapter.
Please refer to our ' for details of microphone compatibility with an Intel Mac. Our Company Our Industries Payment Trust Share Purchase orders are accepted from approved businesses.