How to Turn on Voice Control in Catalina
Unlike Enhanced Dictation in earlier versions of the OS, Voice Control in macOS Catalina doesn’t send your voice to Apple’s servers for conversion. Voice Control is off by default, so you must turn it on to use it.
Make Your Own Voice Commands in Catalina
To make your own voice commands, click the plus (+) at the bottom of the list of commands, or say Add Command to enter a custom command. Scroll through to see the types of things you can do with Voice Control. Voice Control is familiar with most apps, controls, and on-screen items. Simple examples are:
Open NumbersClick New DocumentSave document
Enhanced Dictation in macOS Mojave and Earlier
The Mac has had the ability to take dictation and convert a spoken word into text since the feature was introduced with OS X Mountain Lion. The original Mountain Lion version of Dictation had a few drawbacks, including the need to send a recording of your dictation to Apple servers, where the actual conversion to text was performed. This not only slowed things down, but it also had some people concerned about privacy issues. Beginning with OS X Mavericks, Dictation can be performed directly on your Mac with no need to send information to the cloud. This provided a performance improvement and eliminated the security concern about sending data to the cloud.
Using Dictation for Voice Commands
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 your spoken words. The Mac comes equipped with a number of commands ready for you to use. Once you set up the system, you can use your voice to launch applications, save documents, or search Spotlight, for just a few examples. There’s also a large set of commands for navigation, editing, and formatting text.
Customizing Voice Commands
You’re not limited to the commands that Apple includes with the Mac OS. You can add your own custom commands that let you open files, open apps, run the workflow, paste text, paste data, and cause any keyboard shortcut to be executed.
Enabling Voice Dictation in macOS Mojave and Earlier
If you want to become a Mac Dictator, follow these steps to set up Mac dictation and create a custom voice command that checks for new mail.
Create a Custom Voice Command in macOS Mojave and Earlier
Now that Dictation is enabled, and the Enhanced Dictation files are installed, you’re ready to create your first custom voice command. This example instructs the Mac to check for new mail whenever you say the phrase, “Computer, Check Mail.” A warning appears that using Dictation sends a recording of what you say to Apple for conversion to text. If you don’t want to be encumbered by a wait for Apple servers to convert speech to text or don’t like the idea of Apple listening in, you want to use the Enhanced Dictation option. You created a new Check Mail voice command, and now it’s time to try it out. You need to use both the dictation keyword phrase and the voice command. In this example, you check whether new mail is available by saying: In the text field, just below the box, enter a word you want to use to alert your Mac that a voice command is about to be spoken. This can be as simple as the suggested default Computer or the name you gave your Mac. Since there’s no check mail command, you have to create it yourself. Place a check mark in the Enable advanced commands box. In the When I say field, enter the command name. This is the phrase you speak to invoke the command. For this example, enter Check Mail. In the text field that is displayed, perform the keyboard shortcut for checking mail, which is Shift + Command + N. That’s the shift key, the command key (on Apple keyboards, it looks like a cloverleaf), and the n key—all pressed at the same time. Computer, check mail Once you say the command, your Mac launches the Mail app, if it isn’t already open, brings the Mail window to the front, and then executes the Check Mail keyboard shortcut.
