If you deviate from the defaults, you’re going to be looking at a more conventional Command+Option+Shift+D or something similar. Unfortunately, you can’t set it to something awesome like a double tap of the Shift key or three Qs in a row. Luckily, you can create your own shortcut by selecting Customize in the Shortcut dropdown. Selecting a keyboard shortcut for Dictation There are three alternate shortcuts built in and ready to go, all involving the Command key, but I can see compatibility issues there again for third-party keyboards. This has been just fine for me, but if it’s a no go for your third-party keyboard or just doesn’t work for you and the way you type, you can choose another shortcut. The default shortcut is a double tap of the Fn (Function) key, all the way in the lower left of your Mac’s keyboard. And no, saying “Hello, Computer?” into your mouse isn’t going to cut it. You have to create a keyboard shortcut that will turn Dictation on whenever you have something to say. If you’re cool with that, click 'Enable Dication.'ĭictation doesn’t 'just work,' no matter what the OS X advertisements boast.

You’ll have to acknowledge that everything you dictate is going to be sent to Apple, along with all the stuff Apple thinks you’re likely to say, as mentioned above in Step 1. If Dictation isn’t already enabled, select the 'On' radio button. For instance, I’m entirely likely to say any number of words related to incredibly geeky old school console games, but I’m less likely to go searching for anything having to do with a “catalytic converter” or whatever a “hemi” is. All of this information gathering is to help Apple better recognize what you’re saying. Apple is also going to be looking into other information on your Mac, too, such as your contacts. In the privacy declaration in the Dictation settings, Apple stresses that any information gathered for use with Dictation isn’t linked to any other Apple user data they’ve got for you.Įverything you dictate is sent to Apple before being converted to text. That’s right, Dictation won’t work without an Internet Connection. Before you even think of getting going with Dictation, make sure you’re connected to the Internet. The first step to setting up Dictation in Mountain Lion has nothing to do with System Preferences or even really OS X. In this tutorial, we'll walk through the setup of Dictation, where it excels, and where it falls flat. Dictation is one of the coolest new features unveiled with the recent Mountain Lion release, but with so many other exciting changes, you may have forgotten to take your new speech recognition friend out for a spin.

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