Since introducing the voice-activated assistant Siri to the world with the release of iOS 5 last year, Apple has gained quite a lot of experience in the world of speech to text. So it's unsurprising these features are now making their way over to Mac OS X.
In Mountain Lion, the next version of Mac OS X, a new feature called Dictation is built into the operating system. With this, you can dictate to the computer anywhere you see a text field and it will do its best to translate your jabbering into words on the screen.
Enabling Dictation
To enable Dictation, go to System Preferences and select 'Dictation and Speech'. From here, you can turn it on and off and change the hotkey that you use to access it around the system. By default, it's set to activate when the Fn key is pressed twice, but you can change this to one of the other presets or customise it to whatever you'd like it to be.
Once it's enabled, you can dictate to Mac OS X wherever you are in the system. If you're an app developer, you don't have to do anything to make the feature work with apps as it just interacts with existing text fields. Wherever you can input some data, you can dictate (as pictured below).
I've been testing Dictation for a few weeks now and it works really well when there isn't any noise in the background. If you're using a MacBook, you might come across a few issues if your fan is spinning quickly as it will distort what you're saying. For the most part though, it's a solid start on what could be a really useful feature in the future.
What do you make of the Dictation feature? Does it understand your gruffly spoken, strongly accented caveman mumbling? Let me know in the comments below.
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Comments 13
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anonymous 10 July, 2012 18:08
I am writing this with the dictation function on mac OS X Mountain. I think it works fairly good with a few glitches that I hope can be improved with future iterations.
anonymous 13 July, 2012 08:49
..."With this, you can dictate to the computer anywhere you see a text field and it will do its best to translate your jabbering into words on the screen."
Isn't that a little misleading? It implies your Mac will attempt to convert your speech to text when in fact it sends, among other things, your recorded text to apple for conversion.
So it looks like it won't work if you're offline. Also if you're a business or have other privacy concerns it will probably be frustratingly unusable.
anonymous 13 July, 2012 13:11
Which key is the Fn key? I see a lot of F_ keys but non are Fn!
anonymous 15 July, 2012 23:33
i installed lion mountain and i make update but i dont fint dictation in preferences
anonymous 26 July, 2012 09:51
The "FN" key is on the full size keyboard above "delete"
anonymous 26 July, 2012 15:55
I have brought a new macbook air with lion today and when I look at my system preferences there is no speech & diction only speech, can anyone offer assistance
anonymous 26 July, 2012 20:58
you need to update to Mountain lion you should have an free code to download and install it form the mac apps store as you got a new mac
anonymous 30 July, 2012 20:06
I would be nice to be able to "see" what you are saying without have to hit the done button. What good is this feature? At lease Windows 7 lets you see the converted text as you are talking. It also lets you control most features with voice. To Apple: This is a good start, but need much improvement to be useful.
anonymous 14 September, 2012 16:13
The Fn key on macbook keyboard is below the left shift and near the left control key. Dictation is in the Dictation and Speech under System Tab.
anonymous 16 January, 2013 07:46
I'm a quadriplegic, I have a new iMac and Mac Book Pro on order should I spend $599 on the top of the line Dragon product or should I wait and use the Mac product, I need to surf the web check my mail, Facebook ect.as well operate all the other features and program's .
Any advice
anonymous 19 January, 2013 15:57
After reading various review about the OS upgrade, I bought just for that feature. What a disappointment, WARNING, nobody seems to tell you ahead of time that the feature only works if you are connected to the internet. Your audio is sent to Apple for translation and then sent back to you. Useless, if you are not connected, or if you have any concerns for privacy!
anonymous 18 March, 2013 11:01
I have got the dictate to work on a word document to a degree - but for some reason it turns itself off arbitrarily while I'm still talking on occasions. Is there anything I need to do to ensure that it doesn't do this? It's very annoying ...
anonymous 6 May, 2013 17:41
OMG apple why you are eating billion from peoples pockets. I bought Macbook pro 15" 4 months ago while i opened that, it welcomed me with much teasing glass breaking sounds coming out of the inside of the laptop body, I googled it and found people all over the world are facing this problem from 3 years and Apple could not do anything to fix it even in 2013 now. What they do, just replace the machine or open it , tight some screws and thats it, but right after 3 or 4 days, congrates your sounds will welcome you again. I replaced the MacBook, got new. That was ok in the start, but after 4 months as I use to click on the trackpad, same glass breaking sound has appeared in this book too :(. I am just sad. I was using default 4 gb ram, believe me open safari and few tabs in it would take all your ram away from you leaving a jam on your screen for indeifinite time and a beach volleyball will make fun of you. This feature is useless unless the need to press DONE button is eliminated and text is not sent to APPLE to convert it. i cant command it to open folders but can locate them even I remember some 2 n half year ago I use to say voice commands to my dual core intel machine with least specs and running windows xp on it to open the folders. And listening capability in that software was almost same to it or a little better even. Even right now its volleyball spinning over my head i should stop typing or I will be pushed in rok ages by this laptop again for atleast 10 min.