On your Mac, choose Apple menu System Preferences, click Keyboard, then click Dictation.

Turn it on in the Dictation pane of Keyboard preferences to enable keyboard dictationwhere your words are sent to Apple servers to be analyzed using the latest language data and converted into text in real-time.

If you need to dictate text and control your Mac using your voice instead of a keyboard and trackpad, use Voice Control.

Note: When Voice Control is on, you cant use keyboard dictation.

Turn on keyboard dictation On your Mac, choose Apple menu System Preferences, click Keyboard, then click Dictation.

If asked if you want to improve Siri and Dictation, do one of the following: Share audio recordings: Click Share Audio Recordings to allow Apple to store audio of your Siri and dictation interactions from this Mac.

If you change your mind later and want to share or stop sharing audio recordings, select or deselect the Improve Siri Dictation checkbox in the Analytics Improvements section of Privacy preferences.

Note: You can remove the audio recordings from Apple servers whenever you likesee Delete Siri and dictation history.

To dictate using another language, click the Language pop-up menu, then choose your language and dialect.

Add an unlisted language: Choose Customize or Add Language, then select the languages you want to use.

Remove a language: Click the Language pop-up menu, choose Customize, then deselect the language you dont want to use.

Dictate text In an app on your Mac, place the insertion point where you want the dictated text to appear.

When the feedback window shows a microphone icon with a fluctuating loudness indicator, or you hear the tone that signals your Mac is ready for keyboard dictation, dictate your text.

Note: For best results, speak for no more than 40 seconds at a time.

To insert a punctuation mark or perform simple formatting tasks, do any of the following: Say the name of the punctuation mark, such as exclamation mark.

After you say new line, the dictated text appears when youre done dictating.

For a list of the commands you can use while dictating, see Commands for dictating text.

If you set up keyboard dictation for multiple languages and want to switch languages as you dictate, click the language in the feedback window, then choose the language you want.

For information about setting up keyboard dictation for multiple languages, see Turn on keyboard dictation, above.

When youre done, press the dictation keyboard shortcut, the Return key, or click Done in the feedback window.

Set a different keyboard dictation shortcut By default, you press the Fn (Function) key twice to start or stop keyboard dictation.

If you like, you can choose a different dictation keyboard shortcut.

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