OS X Yosemite: Control your Mac and apps using spoken commands

Control your Mac and apps using spoken commands

When Enhanced Dictation is on, you can use spoken commands to perform tasks and control your Mac.

A large set of selection, navigation, editing, formatting, and system commands are enabled by default for immediate use. For example, you can say commands to select text, navigate in a window, or press the Return key.

You can enable advanced spoken commands that let you do things like quit apps, open documents, or search using Spotlight. You can also create your own spoken commands.

Note:   Before you can use any spoken commands, you must turn on Dictation and Enhanced Dictation in Dictation preferences.

Use spoken commands

  1. Press the dictation shortcut (by default, press the Fn key twice).

    If advanced commands aren’t enabled, the pointer must be in an input area. The feedback window appears and moves along with the insertion point.

  2. Say a command. If you’re dictating text, pause a few seconds before saying the command (otherwise, it may be dictated as text).

    To display a list of commands, say “Show commands.” The list varies depending on the app you’re working in, or what you’re doing. For example, when you’re in a TextEdit document, formatting commands are shown; when you’re in System Preferences, formatting commands aren’t shown.

    To quickly search the list of commands, say “How do I <action>?” For example, say “How do I scroll?” to see commands related to scrolling.

  3. When you’re done, say “Stop listening” or press the dictation shortcut.

If your commands aren’t recognized or the microphone in the feedback window doesn’t respond to your voice, try these solutions.

Enable advanced spoken commands

When advanced commands are enabled, the pointer doesn’t need to be in an input area before you can say a command; Enhanced Dictation is always listening for commands. The feedback window appears in the lower-right corner of the desktop, instead of following the insertion point, and remains there until you move it.

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Accessibility, then click Dictation.

  2. Click Dictation Commands.

    The spoken commands are organized into categories. By default, all selection, navigation, editing, formatting, and system commands are enabled.

  3. Select the “Enable advanced commands” checkbox.

    Additional system commands are added to the list, as well as application and document commands.

Turn off specific spoken commands

If you find that a command is repeatedly applied instead of one you expected, you can disable that command.

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Accessibility, then click Dictation.

  2. Click Dictation Commands.

  3. Deselect the checkbox for a command.

    To enable the command again, select the checkbox.

Create your own spoken commands

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Accessibility, then click Dictation.

  2. Click Dictation Commands.

  3. Click Add below the list of commands. If Add isn’t shown, select the “Enable advanced commands” checkbox.

  4. Type a name for your command, following these guidelines:

    • Use two or more words, and avoid names with a single syllable. For example, use “Make text smaller” rather than “Smaller.”

    • Avoid proper names, names that sound similar to other words, or names that could be confused with other commands.

    • Don’t use names that are used for other commands. If you do, a warning icon appears next to the duplicate commands in the list of commands.

  5. Indicate whether the command is to be used in any app or in a specific app.

  6. Choose the action the command performs.

    Some actions require additional information. For example, for Paste Text, you must enter the text to be pasted whenever you say your command.

  7. Click Done.

    Your commands appear in the User section at the top of the list.

If you created spoken commands in OS X Mavericks or earlier, they’re automatically converted to dictation commands for use with Enhanced Dictation in OS X Yosemite. Your commands are listed in the User section of the commands list.

You can use other dictation commands that OS X provides for punctuation, typography, formatting, and more, even when Enhanced Dictation is not enabled.

Last Modified: Sep 23, 2015
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