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Your Mac's ability to convert your speech into on-screen text
is known as Dictation. To enable this feature,
double press the Function key on the keyboard.
The Function key can be found in the lower-left corner,
and has the letters "fn" on it. The very first time you initiate Dictation,
your Mac will ask you if you would like to
"Use Enhanced Dictation." As the screen informs us,
Enhanced Dictation allows offline use and continuous dictation
within a window with live feedback. What that means,
is your computer has the ability to convert your speech into text
without the need of the internet. If you uncheck
"Use Enhanced Dictation," any speech
you wish to convert into text must be sent to Apple
using the internet. If you do wish to use Enhanced Dictation,
wherein you Mac will not need to send your speech to Apple
in order to convert to text, your Mac will download a package
in order to convert text internally. In this example,
I will disable Enhance Dictation. Then I press "OK."
I will continue to "Enable Dictation."
With Dictation enabled,
a microphone icon will appear. Your Mac is now listening to anything you say.
"Hello Mac, comma, how are you today,
question mark."
Punctuation must be firmly spoken. Once Dictation
has completed converting my speech into text, I can edit and format,
or I can continue dictating. Once more,
I double press the Function (fn) key on the keyboard. "Now that you are listening to
the words I'm saying, comma,
I can speak for as long as I would like, period,
as long as I speak clearly, period."
Words which Dictation may not be certain of, are underlined
with a blue dot. I can secondary click on any of these words;
which means to tap on the trackpad with two fingers,
or right-click if you're using a mouse, and the computer will provide any
alternate spellings or words I may have meant. Dictation can be used
anywhere I'm able to type. For instance,
within Safari. "Easy Mac Training."
Dictation is used strictly for converting speech into text. It can not
understand commands, therefore I cannot command my computer to do something.