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macOS Catalina introduces Voice Control, a new way to fully control your Mac entirely with your voice. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine to improve on the Enhanced Dictation feature available in earlier versions of macOS.¹

How to turn on Voice Control

OS X Mavericks boasts a much improved built-in dictation tool. But how improved is it, really? David Sparks pits it against the established Mac transcription champ, Dragon Dictate.

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After upgrading to macOS Catalina, follow these steps to turn on Voice Control:

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Accessibility.
2. Click Voice Control in the sidebar.
3. Select Enable Voice Control. When you turn on Voice Control for the first time, your Mac completes a one-time download from Apple.²
   Voice Control preferences
   

When Voice Control is enabled, you see an onscreen microphone representing the mic selected in Voice Control preferences.

To pause Voice Control and stop it from from listening, say ”Go to sleep” or click Sleep. To resume Voice Control, say or click ”Wake up.”

How to use Voice Control

Get to know Voice Control by reviewing the list of voice commands available to you: Say “Show commands” or ”Show me what I can say.” The list varies based on context, and you may discover variations not listed. To make it easier to know whether Voice Control heard your phrase as a command, you can select ”Play sound when command is recognized” in Voice Control preferences.

Basic navigation

Voice Control recognizes the names of many apps, labels, controls, and other onscreen items, so you can navigate by combining those names with certain commands. Here are some examples:

• Open Pages: ”Open Pages.” Then create a new document: ”Click New Document.” Then choose one of the letter templates: 'Click Letter. Click Classic Letter.” Then save your document: ”Save document.”
• Start a new message in Mail: ”Click New Message.” Then address it: ”John Appleseed.”
• Turn on Dark Mode: ”Open System Preferences. Click General. Click Dark.” Then quit System Preferences: ”Quit System Preferences” or ”Close window.”
• Restart your Mac: ”Click Apple menu. Click Restart” (or use the number overlay and say ”Click 8”).

You can also create your own voice commands.

Number overlays

Use number overlays to quickly interact with parts of the screen that Voice Control recognizes as clickable, such as menus, checkboxes, and buttons. To turn on number overlays, say ”Show numbers.” Then just say a number to click it.

Number overlays make it easy to interact with complex interfaces, such as web pages. For example, in your web browser you could say ”Search for Apple stores near me.” Then use the number overlay to choose one of the results: ”Show numbers. Click 64.” (If the name of the link is unique, you might also be able to click it without overlays by saying ”Click” and the name of the link.)

Voice Control automatically shows numbers in menus and wherever you need to distinguish between items that have the same name.

Grid overlays

Use grid overlays to interact with parts of the screen that don't have a control, or that Voice Control doesn't recognize as clickable.

Say “Show grid” to show a numbered grid on your screen, or ”Show window grid” to limit the grid to the active window. Say a grid number to subdivide that area of the grid, and repeat as needed to continue refining your selection.

To click the item behind a grid number, say ”Click” and the number. Or say ”Zoom” and the number to zoom in on that area of the grid, then automatically hide the grid. You can also use grid numbers to drag a selected item from one area of the grid to another: ”Drag 3 to 14.”

To hide grid numbers, say ”Hide numbers.” To hide both numbers and grid, say ”Hide grid.”

Dictation

When the cursor is in a document, email message, text message, or other text field, you can dictate continuously. Dictation converts your spoken words into text.

• To enter a punctuation mark, symbol, or emoji, just speak its name, such as ”question mark” or ”percent sign” or ”happy emoji.” These may vary by language or dialect.
• To move around and select text, you can use commands like ”Move up two sentences” or ”Move forward one paragraph” or ”Select previous word” or ”Select next paragraph.”
• To format text, try ”Bold that” or ”Capitalize that,” for example. Say ”numeral” to format your next phrase as a number.
• To delete text, you can choose from many delete commands. For example, say “delete that” and Voice Control knows to delete what you just typed. Or say ”Delete all” to delete everything and start over.

Voice Control understands contextual cues, so you can seamlessly transition between text dictation and commands. For example, to dictate and then send a birthday greeting in Messages, you could say ”Happy Birthday. Click Send.” Or to replace a phrase, say ”Replace I’m almost there with I just arrived.”

You can also create your own vocabulary for use with dictation.

Create your own voice commands and vocabulary

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Create your own voice commands

1. Open Voice Control preferences, such as by saying ”Open Voice Control preferences.”
2. Click Commands or say ”Click Commands.” The complete list of all commands opens.
3. To add a new command, click the add button (+) or say ”Click add.” Then configure these options to define the command:
   • When I say: Enter the word or phrase that you want to be able to speak to perform the action.
   • While using: Choose whether your Mac performs the action only when you're using a particular app.
   • Perform: Choose the action to perform. You can open a Finder item, open a URL, paste text, paste data from the clipboard, press a keyboard shortcut, select a menu item, or run an Automator workflow.
4. Use the checkboxes to turn commands on or off. You can also select a command to find out whether other phrases work with that command. For example, “Undo that” works with several phrases, including “Undo this” and “Scratch that.”

To quickly add a new command, you can say ”Make this speakable.” Voice Control will help you configure the new command based on the context. For example, if you speak this command while a menu item is selected, Voice Control helps you make a command for choosing that menu item.

Create your own dictation vocabulary

1. Open Voice Control preferences, such as by saying ”Open Voice Control preferences.”
2. Click Vocabulary, or say ”Click Vocabulary.”
3. Click the add button (+) or say ”Click add.”
4. Type a new word or phrase as you want it to be entered when spoken.

Learn more

• For the best performance when using Voice Control with a Mac notebook computer and an external display, keep your notebook lid open or use an external microphone.
• All audio processing for Voice Control happens on your device, so your personal data is always kept private.
• Use Voice Control on your iPhone or iPod touch.
• Learn more about accessibility features in Apple products.

1. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine for U.S. English only. Other languages and dialects use the speech-recognition engine previously available with Enhanced Dictation.

2. If you're on a business or school network that uses a proxy server, Voice Control might not be able to download. Have your network administrator refer to the network ports used by Apple software products.

Dictation is quite a helpful accessibility feature, especially if you have trouble using the keyboard. All you need to do is open the document you want to add text to, click Edit > Start Dictation, then say what you want to type to add them to the document. Alternatively, you can press Fn twice to start the dictation. You should see a microphone and an input meter on the screen, indicating that your Mac is listening.

The more you use Dictation, the more it understands you because it slowly learns your accent and other characteristics of your voice. You also need to speak out the punctuations for them to be included in your document.

To set up Dictation on your Mac, follow these steps:

1. From the Apple menu, click System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation.
2. Turn on Dictation.
3. Next, choose whether you want to enable Enhanced Dictation, so you can use the feature even when you’re offline.
4. Select your language and dialect.
5. Select the keyboard shortcut you want to use to start the dictation.
6. Select your preferred microphone by clicking the pop-up menu below the microphone icon.

If you’re running macOS Sierra and you have Siri enabled, you can use it to set up Dictation using commands.

What to Do When Dictation on Mac Is Not Working Properly

Dictation is generally easy to use. Just press your shortcut, then speak what you want to type when you see the microphone icon. Unfortunately, some users reported encountering text doubles in Mac. The problem mostly happens with Safari, but there are reports of the duplicate problem happening in other apps. Dictation sometimes doubles what is being said, with the doubled entry having small blue dots under it.

For example, instead of just typing, dictation sometimes doubles what is being said, you’ll get dictation sometimes doubles what is being said dictation sometimes doubles what is being said. The cursor usually freezes whenever this happens, then you’ll see the duplicated text when the cursor starts working again.

Users noted that Mac Dictation spews out duplicates when using the feature on text boxes in Safari. However, the problem doesn’t happen when entering text in the address bar.

What Causes Duplication in Dictation?

If the problem occurs only in Safari, then the problem might be related to the app itself and not Dictation. But if the duplication problem occurs with other apps, then you might have a faulty Dictation feature.

One of the possible causes of the problem is incorrect keyboard settings. It is also possible that a Dictation feature, such as Enhanced Dictation, is not compatible with your system. A corrupted .plist file or an outdated software can also cause this problem to occur. It is also likely that the duplication issue is being caused by a temporary glitch, which can be easily resolved by rebooting.

How to Fix Text Doubles in Mac

Before trying the solutions below, try performing some basic troubleshooting first to see if the error will go away. Follow these steps:

• Turn off Dictation, then turn it back on. This action usually solves minor issues involving Dictation.
• If it doesn’t work, try turning off the feature, then restart your Mac. Turn the feature back on after rebooting.
• Change your microphone from the Dictation settings. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation. Click the microphone icon, then choose Internal Microphone instead of Automatic or other external microphone.
• Delete all junk files from your computer using Outbyte MacRepair. These unwanted files can cause problems for your system processes and features, so you should remove them regularly.

If these troubleshooting steps did not work, proceed with the solutions below.

Solution #1: Update or Uninstall the App That’s Causing the Issue.

For some users, the duplication issue only happens with Safari. If this is the case, check if there is an update for that app and install it. Once updated, try using Dictation if the issue has been resolved. If not, try uninstalling then reinstalling the app. Just go to the Applications folder and drag the app icon to the Trash.

Solution #2: Reset Your Dictation Preferences.

A corrupted preferences file or .plist case related to the Dictation feature can lead to a whole slew of troubles. A quick way to fix this is by deleting the preferences file from the Preferences folder. To do this:

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1. From the Finder menu, click Go > Go to Folder. Or you can press Command + Shift + G from the Finder window or your desktop.
2. Type ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.assistant.plist into the dialog box, then press the Go button.
3. Drag the file to the Trash.
4. Turn off Dictation, then restart your Mac.
5. Turn the feature back on after rebooting and check if the error has disappeared.

Solution #3: Delete Your Speech Recognition User Library Cache Folder.

If deleting your .plist file doesn’t work, you should try deleting the speech recognition cache folder next. Follow the steps above to open Go to Folder dialog box, then search for ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore. Drag the file to the Trash to delete it.

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Solution #4: Turn Off Enhanced Dictation.

For some users, the problem only happens when the Enhanced Dictation option is enabled. Disabling this feature might resolve the problem. Just go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation, then uncheck Enhanced Dictation. Restart your computer and try using Dictation to see if it worked.

Solution #5: Turn Off Key Repeat Under Keyboard Preferences.

This solution worked for a lot of users who were experiencing the duplication issues. To turn off key repeat, follow these steps:

1. Click the Apple menu, then go to System Preferences > Keyboard.
2. Drag the slider to Off.
3. Reboot your Mac and try using Dictation to see if there are still text doubles.

Solution #6: Download Another Language.

Another solution you can try is to download another language pack and install it on your Mac. This should reset your native language pack and hopefully resolve the issue.

To do this:

1. Click the Apple menu, then go to System Preferences > Language & Region.
2. Click the (+) or Add button.
3. Choose the language you want to add, then install it on your computer.
4. Reboot your Mac and see if the duplicate text problem has gone away.

Summary

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Dictation is quite a handy feature for when you have trouble typing on your keyboard. But if Dictation on Mac is not working properly, it would cause more harm than good because you have to delete every duplicated phrase. This error can be caused by a lot of factors. But if you’re not sure what’s causing yours, simply work your way down the list above to see which solution works for you.

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