Since I bought my first computer, I have been borderline obsessed with voice recognition, using your voice to input text instead of the keyboard. With the release of the newest version of the Apple operating system for their computers, dubbed Mountain Lion or Mac OSX 10.8 (and later), that function is now a standard feature of the system. It does require an Internet connection because the dictation happens on the Apple servers and then is transmitted back to your computer, but it does so lightning fast.
Here’s how to enable and use it:
- Click the Apple menu in the upper left of the screen
- Click System Preferences
- Click Dictation and Speech
- Click the On option
- Click Enable Dictation
Take note that the default keyboard shortcut to enable dictation is pressing the Fn key two times (it is located in the far lower left of the Mac keyboard). You can also start a dictation session by clicking Edit from any program menu.
Apple dictation can be used anywhere you can enter text…and it works pretty well.
Here’s a short video going through the above steps and giving you a short demonstration of the technology.
