This is about getting more from dictation in OS X, but really it's about getting anything from it at all: we're prepared to bet that you've never even switched the feature on. That might be because you're already addicted to
Dragon Dictate, and if that is the case, you carry on. If it's that you just haven't looked, or if you don't believe you need it though, OS X Yosemite's dictation is far better and more genuinely useful than you mght expect.
It also does more than you think. We haven't yet got Siri on OS X, but the dictation tools that come with your Mac do let you perform certain actions. It will do basic Spotlight searches for you, it will paste text, it will scroll the page you're reading.
Here's how to set it up, and then the first things to try with OS X Yosemite dictation (it also works in Mavericks if you're still on 10.9).
Switch on Dictation
Go to Settings and click on Dictation Speech. That includes On and Off buttons whose purpose you might just be able to guess. However, there is also a tick box option for what's called Enhanced Dictation. Tick it.
If you don't, dictation on OS X works much the same as it does with Siri on iOS: the audio of everything you say is sent off to Apple to be analyzed, and sent back to you as text. Fine, but that needs an Internet connection and even when you're online, the round trip is slow. It's not as if we're not talking hours, but it's noticeably slow. Also, you don't see the words you've dictated until they've done that trip: you can't see word by word, you have to say a bit, then shut up and wait.
Ticking Enhanced Dictation changes all of that. The first time you tick the box, your Mac downloads more software specifically for analyzing audio, so that it can do its job without having to send the text off. That's obviously quicker, and obviously more secure than having your words crossing the Internet, but it also means you can see what you're dictating word by word (though don't be too hasty to stop and correct things; the system has a habit of retyping homonyms and such once it understands the full context, so just keep talking).
Clearly that means you know when it's getting right, but it's also reassuring. Sometimes without Enhanced Dictation on, you'd say something and discover Dictation just didn't work. The only thing we have against Enhanced Dictation is that the software takes up approximately 1.2Gb. It's more than worth the space, but if you're using a small SSD drive then you at least need to know about it.
Basic dictation
Open any app that can take text. Click where you want to write and now press the Function (Fn) key on your keyboard twice. If you just looked down wondering where in the world that is, it's possible you haven't got an Fn key. In that case, go back to System Preferences, Dictation & Speech and choose a different keystroke to use.
When you've switched on dictation like this, you get a bubble with a microphone icon in it. The inside of that microphone acts as a sound level: it rises and falls in response to your speaking. Dictate what you want to say and then press the Done button.
The fact that you can dictate text and have your words be recognised at all is impressive. That it works as well as it does is remarkable, and it is this accuracy that makes it worth using. However, in practice it is a chore switching this on and off. Tapping the Fn key on your keyboard to begin, then mousing over to the Done button when you're finished, it's all rather against the idea of being able to use your Mac through voice alone.
New paragraphs
OS X Yosemite's dictation really works best if you speak one sentence at a time, with no hesitation, until the end. Pause at the end, but avoid stopping to think mid-sentence. It also isn't great for making speeches, and then clicking Done. However, you can insert commands. If you're writing an email to someone, you can dictate the text, and then say commands like "new paragraph," "open bracket," "colon," and so on. That means you are able to dictate whole paragraphs, you're not limited to single lines.
If in doubt, try it: say the punctuation you want to include in the text, and the odds are that OS X Yosemite will do it. It also works with "open quote/close quote," "open parentheses/close parentheses" and "m-dash," among others.
Dictation tips
Think about what you want to say, form the sentence, develop that nice phrase before you click to dictate. The more you um and er during dictation, the more you'll have to retype later.
Also, you can press Escape on your keyboard (or tap the Function key again), rather than mouse over to the Done button when you're finished speaking, but don't. Say "Stop listening" instead. It generally works, and it's cool. We did find, though, that sporadically OS X would keep listening, and add the words it heard to our text. Awkward.
You don't expect dictation to be flawless until you've used it a while and seen how often it really is exactly right. Not to ascribe human characteristics to it but, as we find with Siri, OS X Yosemite dictation has good days and bad days. We tried to find an average for the number of corrections we needed to make to text, and there was no useful figure. It just sometimes needed a lot more work than others.
Yet if you can't take away any specific statistics from our testing, you can at least take away that dictation works more than well enough to be a useful, working tool. The third-party application
Dragon Dictate is better, but it's also not free -- and OS X's built-in feature is deeply underrated.
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
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