You can find some very interesting tutorials we have written about the topic here and in this one as well. Then name your workflow and make sure to check the Command Enabled checkbox. Next, open Automator and select the Dictation Command option to create a new voice-enabled workflow. To do this, at the bottom left part of the panel shown above (where all the commands are listed), check the box next to Enable advanced commands and then click on Done. In addition to the new commands, the new dictation feature lets you create your own commands to activate Automator workflows. Trigger Automator Workflows Using Dictation After that, at the right side of the window click the Dictation Commands… button to display the list of commands and all the ways in which you can perform each.

There, at the bottom of the left panel click on Dictation.

To find them, head back to the main System Preferences panel and select the Accessibility option. Interestingly, these commands are not located under Dictation & Speech, as you would guess. While Dictation Commands make it easier to format text as you dictate, not every Mac user is familiar with all the available commands. Now, after using the required shortcut to start dictation, you can simply speak the title of a command to have it executed. If you choose not to use this, you will need an active Internet connection to dictate on your Mac. This will download a 1.2GB file to your Mac.

There, switch on Dictation and also enable the Use Enhanced Dictation option. This comes disabled by default, which makes the feature unknown to even the most seasoned Mac users. To enable it, open System Preferences and then click on Dictation & Speech. With Yosemite, both of these have been merged into Dictation Commands, which streamlines the whole dictation process in OS X. Even more, those commands lived as a separate entity from Dictation. In previous versions of OS X, the Voice Command feature used Speakable Items, which let you control your Mac using interaction commands for basic actions, such as switching applications or opening websites. This is basically copy of the commands in Preferences → Accessibility → Voice Control → Commands…, but has the advantage of being text/HTML, so it’s searchable.Here are a few great Dictation tips that you will definitely want to put into practice if you own a Mac with the latest OS. Although I’ve done a fair bit of testing using Voice Control on macOS over the past year or so, I’m far from an every day user, so something that comes in very handy is my cheatsheet.

Mac os dictation