Dictation Commands for Mac OS X & iOS Find the text of Additional resources titled, And finally, follow this additional link to a YouTube video titled, Dictation is a feature of iOS and Mac OS X that lets you speak as you normally would, transforming your speech magically into text. It’s impressively accurate, letting you easily crank out notes, emails, diary entries, or just about anything else with it just by talking. To really get the most out of Dictation though you will want to learn a few extra commands, they will help with things like punctuation, creating paragraphs, jumping to new lines, and setting capitalization. These commands will work in both OS X and iOS, so long as the Mac, iPad, or iPhone supports Dictation and has the featured turned on (here’s how to enable it in OS X and how to enable it for iOS, though it’s almost always turned on by default in the latest versions of both.) List of Dictation Commands for iOS & Mac OS X These are to be spoken when Dictation is active:. “All Caps” to capitalize all of only the next word (e.g. START). “Caps” to capitalize the next word (e.g.
Start). “Upper Case letter” for making a spelling out acronyms (e.g. Published by Albert Ruel The Albert A. Ruel Road to Blindness A 21 year old man stood on the beach at the Sproat Lake Provincial Park with friends early in May of 1977, and upon gazing across the lake found the Gulf Oil sign missing from the dock-side filling station there. When this fact was shared with his companions they glanced at him with puzzled looks and said, “No Albert, the sign is still there”. That was the beginning of a road through confusion, anger, isolation, loneliness and discovery for me.
It all began with a visit to a local Optometrist who could see that my vision wasn’t right, but that corrective lenses wouldn’t help. He then referred me to a General Practitioner, where I received a clean bill of health and an additional referral. This time to an Ophthalmologist. Immediately upon peering through the dilated pupils, Dr. McKerricher was able to see the problem, Retinal Vasculitis.
So when I have the Dictation command's window selected it's different than when I have the Text Edit window selected and different if say I click on the background to select the Finder it's going to give me different things. Using Basic Dictation Commands, Create Dictation Commands On Your Mac, How To Delete a Text Box In Pages? The Mac's dictation system isn't limited to speech to text; it can also convert speech to voice commands, letting you control your Mac with just your spoken words. The Mac comes equipped with a number of commands ready for you to use. To use any of the commands that you turned on, first make your Mac listen for dictation commands: Press the keyboard shortcut for starting dictation. The default shortcut is Fn Fn (press the Fn key twice). Or turn on the option “Enable the dictation keyword phrase,” which is next to the Dictation Commands button.
Now, you would think that all would start to improve at this point, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. You see, CNIB, from 1918 until 1985 only served the needs of people who were “Legally Blind”, a level of vision loss I wouldn’t reach until November of 1979. The words of Dr. McKerricher still echo in my mind today, “Albert, I don’t know what has caused this and nothing we’ve tried is helping to stop it, and you’re not blind enough for me to refer you to CNIB”!
In the middle of this transition from 20/20 vision to “Legally Blind” came the Motor Vehicle Branch and it’s rules of the road. On August 3, 1978 I drove a car for the last time as my vision had reached the level at which operating a motor vehicle became too dangerous, further intensifying feelings of fear, isolation and anger. Sadly, through this period the only available guidance and support was through family and friends, but not the experienced professionals I needed at the time. Although these support systems are critically important they can often be smothering and facilitating, rather than encouraging and supportive. With gratitude, and some trepidation I finally was able to access CNIB services in November of 1979, and the world opened up then.
There I was able to meet other blind people and receive the daily living and mobility skills required to live independently in this sighted world. I learned elementary braille and began to discover technology as necessary tools of independence. Thankfully, in 1985 CNIB’s National Board altered the course of service to visually impaired Canadians forever. They added a third prong to their Mission Statement, “To promote sight enhancement services”.
This opened the door to all Canadians who were beginning to lose sight, as well as those who had a fear of vision loss to access the full range of CNIB Support and Rehabilitation Services. So now, whether it’s someone’s Mother who is experiencing Macular Degeneration, or an Uncle experiencing the affects of Glaucoma, all have the ability to seek information, guidance and support as all involved deal with the fear and anxiety that accompanies such life altering experiences. With the help of professional Rehabilitation Workers and Employment Counselors I was able to continue traveling independently within my own community, and even more remarkably anywhere in the world I desired to go. I managed to attend College in Nanaimo and New Westminster, as well as traveling to the Mayo Clinic and to doctor’s appointments in Nanaimo and Vancouver without assistance. All of this while living with some usable vision, but not yet needing a white cane for travel.
During the mid 1980’s I was a stay-at-home Dad and did all that was required of that challenging work, from changing diapers to preparing meals, and from cutting the grass to maintaining our home. I even took a woodworking course through Alberni’s Adult Education program and built and restored several pieces of furniture. Of course the 1958 Chevy Impala in the garage was my pride and joy, and I devised ways to do much of the work it required. I also joined and participated in many community activities, like the local Car Club, and a disability support group that catered to the needs of people with many different disabilities.
Of course, continued participation in family life remained of critical importance through this period. In 1989 a secondary condition began to extinguish the vision that remained, which set into motion a new stream of professional rehabilitation services and supports. By the spring of 1990 Glaucoma had turned out the lights completely, and the darkness I had feared so desperately was upon me.
Strangely though, I found this to be a great relief rather than the tragedy I had imagined it would be. Through several professional rehabilitation sessions, and by joining peer mentoring and advocacy groups I was able to come to terms with this strange feeling, and to learn additional skills and strategies for living with no visual cues of the world around me. This is also about the time that I decided to explore CNIB as an employer, and to see if I could provide the sort of guidance and support to others that had been my pleasure to receive. Those 14 years were a wonderful experience of ongoing discovery for me, as teaching may be the best way to solidify one’s own learning. In other words, those we assist through this transition in turn help us all as we develop best practices and improved service. Following a 14 year career with CNIB I also served the blind community as the first National Equality Director employed by the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC), and as a Basic Computer Literacy Trainer with the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB). Most recently I have enjoyed coordinating the CCB’s newly launched Get Together with Technology Program in Western Canada, which brings to the fore my passion for assistive technology and the power of peer mentoring.
Without sight I have continued to travel far and wide, with trips to Conventions of and for the Blind in Anaheim California and Melbourne Australia, as well as to many events and activities in Toronto and Vancouver. Of course my work has taken me to many communities throughout Western Canada, and most particularly nearly all regions of BC and on Vancouver Island. None of which would have been possible without the services and support of organizations like CCB, AEBC and CNIB. For most people blindness generates a fear of extended movement, both within one’s home and community, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Independence comes from personal desire and increased skill. Many community organizations can assist with both through their mentoring and skill development programs.
I remember always that life has little to do with what happens to me and 100% what I do about/with it. There is a quote I like to use from the National Federation of the Blind in the USA, “With adequate skill development and opportunity blindness can be reduced to the level of a nuisance”, and nothing could be closer to the truth. Helen Keller said many years ago, “There is nothing more tragic than someone who has sight, but no vision”. She also challenged the Lions Clubs of the world to become the “Knights of the Blind, and to take up the crusade against darkness”.
I too joined a Lions Club in 1992 and continue to work on the crusade that Helen Keller began in the 1920-s.
By Speech recognition is a powerful tool that’s built into OS X El Capitan. It’s both convenient when you have your hands full and freeing when you want your mind open. El Capitan offers two flavors of speech recognition.
Dictation converts your spoken words into text in most applications; Dictation Commands let you use your voice to control your Mac. To start using Dictation and Dictation Commands on your Mac, launch System Preferences and follow these steps:. Open the Dictation & Speech System Preferences pane.
Turn Off Dictation On Mac
Click the Dictation tab. Click the On button for Dictation. (Optional) Click the Use Enhanced Dictation check box. If you don’t enable Use Enhanced Dictation, you can only use Dictation if your Mac has an Internet connection; enable this option to use Dictation without an Internet connection. (Optional) Choose the microphone you want to use from the Microphone pop-up menu.
The Microphone pop-up menu is beneath the microphone icon on the left. If your Mac has a built-in microphone, click where it says “Internal Microphone.” For what it’s worth, you will probably get better results from just about any third-party microphone.
Os X Dictation
The Mac’s built-in mic works, but almost any third-party microphone will be better for speech recognition. (Optional) Change the shortcut to turn Dictation on and off. By default, the shortcut is to press the Fn (Function) key twice. To change it, click the Shortcut menu and select a different shortcut. And that’s all there is to setting up Dictation in El Capitan.
When you want to talk to your Mac, just invoke the shortcut to start talking. If you’re using a program that accepts text input, your words will appear on the screen almost immediately after you say them. If you’re interested in knowing what commands work with your Mac, press your Dictation shortcut key to turn Dictation on, and then say, “Show Commands.” A mini-window with all the commands your Mac understands appears; scroll through the list to see every spoken command your Mac will recognize.