If you have mobility or motor impairments, repetitive stress injuries, or you find typing on a keyboard difficult in any way, there's an alternative. Dictation lets you talk instead of type, and voice-to-text transcribes what you say into words on the screen. It's among the Mac's many accessibility features. All you have to do is set it up and get going.
How to enable and use Dictation
Basic dictation is essentially always enabled by default — you just need to activate it.
Mar 14, 2020 Download The Software: Transcribe. From Editor’s Desk. These are some of the best Mac-based transcription software. I’m sure these softwares will help you to convert audio into text, and in some cases, you can also put text notes in audio files. No matter what your use is, these softwares will surely serve the purpose. Download and install the best free apps for Voice Recognition Software on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android from CNET Download.com, your trusted source for the top software picks. 10 Best Transcription Software for Mac Both Free & Paid Posted by Rahul Gupta in: Mac Software When we are dealing with a significant amount of audio or video data, it is not that easy to hear them out and then convert them into text.
The more you use Dictation, the more it learns how you speak — like your accent and cadence. It may seem finicky at first, but as you use it more, it'll get better and better. Apple has a great starter guide on how to dictate punctuation and formatting, as well.
How to change your Dictation language
Did you know that you can dictate your text in multiple languages? Here's how.
To use those languages, you can switch to the default dictation option at any time by going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation Language and selecting your current language from the dropdown menu.
How to enable and use Enhanced Dictation
Enhanced Dictation enables you to dictate without an internet connection, and dictate continuously; this means that your words will convert to text more quickly since they're being processed locally on your device.
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Once enabled, you can use Enhanced Dictation the same way you would regular dictation. Press the Fn key twice when your cursor is in a text field. If the microphone shows up, speak what you want to be typed and click Done or press the Fn key once.
How to change the Dictation keyboard shortcut
While the Fn key on your Mac's keyboard is the default trigger for dictation, you can change that in the Dictation section of the keyboard preference pane
How to enable/disable Dictation Commands
Dictation Commands allow you to do things with your text just by speaking. For example, you can select a whole paragraph, go back to the beginning, or replace a phrase with another phrase.
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You can only use Dictation Commands with Enhanced Dictation enabled.
Reading through the Dictation Commands list is a great way to learn all the things you can do with text just by speaking to your Mac. You can also click the checkbox next to Enable advanced commands, which will enable system commands.
How to enable the dictation keyword phrase
Want to feel like you're in a sci-fi movie? Enable the dictation keyword phrase and you'll be able to use dictation commands even when you're not dictating. So you can be all 'computer, replace 'boots' with 'cats',' and the phrase will be replaced in your text. It's a bit finicky, but when it works, it's so cool!
You have to have Enhanced Dictation enabled for this to work.
Now when your cursor is in a text field, you can just say the keyword phrase and your dictation command and it'll do it.
How to enable a sound when a command is recognized
You have to have Enhanced Dictation enabled for this to work.
How to enable/disable output mute during dictation
If you accidentally open a website with an autoplay video or you're listening to music but want to dictate something quickly, you can mute audio output during dictation so that you don't have to manually fiddle around with volume.
You must have Enhanced Dictation enabled to use this feature.
Avast and applications google chrome.app contents macos google chrome windows 10. The Windows update is still going (almost 2 GB of updates) so I disabled Avast shields for 1 hour.
Dictation accessibility in macOS Catalina
In macOS Catalina, Apple has opted to change things up a bit regarding dictation and accessibility. While there was previously a section for accessibility options for dictation in System Preferences, those capabilities have been folded into the new Voice Control accessibility feature. Voice Control is a greatly expanded set of capabilities that allow you to control every aspect of your Mac, including text entry, with your voice.
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Questions?
Dictation questions? Let us know in the comments below!
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Updated July 2019: Updated instructions for macOS Mojave and added a section about what's happening with dictation accessibility in macOS Catalina.
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When we are dealing with a significant amount of audio or video data, it is not that easy to hear them out and then convert them into text. The transcription task gets complicated as we may be dealing with different dialects and at times noisy data.
So in such instances, the various transcription software available come to rescue. This software mainly performs speech to text conversion making your job a whole lot easier. Here are Top 10 Transcription Software for Mac. 1. Express ScribeExpress Scribe is designed considering the needs of Mac users. The user can control the audio playback using a transcription foot pedal or by using the keyboard. Express Scribe also offers many other functionalities such as variable speed playback, multi-channel control, playing video, file management, and much more.Using the free version, you can use the standard audio formats such as wav, mp3, wma, and dct. By upgrading to the professional version, you can get proprietary format support. It supports both audio and video playback and plays formats including encrypted dictation files. You can also use professional USB foot pedals to control playback. This transcription software automatically receives and loads files by the internet (FTP), email or over a local computer network. It also works with speech recognition software to automatically convert speech to text. Using the plug and play foot pedal, you can make your foot control the playback as you type, which can help you increase your typing speed. You can also load CD audio and start working as the audio loads. Express Scribe Basic costs $29.99, and Professional version costs $34.99. 2. InqscribeYou can download and install this transcription software for free, or register for a 14-day trial or get the paid version for lifetime use. You can play audio and video in almost all popular formats. Using USB foot pedal, the control playback is smoother.There are options to save the document and to insert shortcuts and snippets. Using snippets, you can add frequently used words in a single click. With Inqscribe, you can create a subtitled QuickTime movie or even print the transcripts. You can add time codes to jump to a particular point in the film clip. The single license costs $99, but students and staff can get a maximum of up to $60 off on discounts. 3. DragonDragon is designed specifically to help you create documents, spreadsheets or presentations faster. It is useful for sending emails and for filling out forms. The transcription by Dragon is very accurate.You can also customize words for the terms you use every day, insert text or graphics that are often used and create command shortcuts for repetitive tasks. You can also transcribe voice memos from your smartphone or portable voice recorder, podcasts or audio files of any single speaker’s voice to text quickly. It is capable of advanced customization features so that it adapts well to even the most industry-specific terminology that you use every day. It can transcribe all commonly used formats like .mp3 aif, .aiff , .wav, .mp4, .m4a, .m4v. For accurate transcription, it can also capture notes. 4. VoxSigma Speech to TextVoxSigma is equipped with extensive vocabulary multilingual speech-to-text capabilities. Keeping in mind the needs of professional users, it can transcribe even clips with slight noises. And it is useful in the text to speech conversion of large quantities of audio and video documents such as broadcast data, either in batch mode or in real-time.Data available from call centers can be analyzed using these. First, the audio segments that contain the speech are identified followed by the language. Then, the text to speech conversion is done. It has adaptive features that can distinguish voices even if some background music is playing and is capable of converting them into text. VoxSigma outputs an XML document with annotations including speech and non-speech segments, speaker labels, and words with time codes, high-quality confidence scores, and punctuation. This XML file can be converted into plain text. 5. TranscrivaThe biggest charm of Transcriva is its usability. You can organize your transcripts all in one place. It also adjusts itself with variable speed audios for accurate transcription. You can further print your transcripts or export them as RTF or Word documents for editing, sharing, and publication.It allows you to play back your transcripts when you're done transcribing. It also comes with foot pedal support to ease things for you. And apart from this, there are so many customization features available to fit each user needs. 6. ATMacATMac can be used to write your emails, for chatting and for other text to speech needs. It is capable of identifying many English dialects and accents including American, Northern Ireland, Southern, Australian, British, Indian and much more.7. iSayiSay has a clean interface to give the users a positive transcription experience. You can use them for emails and other notes. And there are hotkeys to speed up transcription process. It was also compatible with cell phones.8. Mac Speech ScribeMac Speech Scribe gives excellent accuracy in converting audio files. It avoids typos and misspelled words. Simply open the file and click on the Transcribe button. Your work is done!It supports up to six speech profiles and guarantees accuracy to six different voices. It also allows transcription from audio recordings on Mac, iPhone, and other digital voice recorders. It doesn't require much time to be spent on training as it quickly adapts to different sounds. It is also sensitive towards 13 different English dialects. 9. Hyper TranscribeHyper Transcribe supports all the major audio formats such as MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG, AVI, MOV, etc. It can export the output file as RTF or plain text. You can first install the trial version and then upgrade to paid version after purchase.10. Seventh StringSeventh String transcribes Assistant is designed to help musicians. With the use of foot pedal, faster transcription can be done. This tool slows down the tracks which are not suitable for transcription thus making them fit for speech to text conversion. It slows down the music without changing the pitch so that you can analyze chords and notes that it represents.Final WordsTranscription is now made easy with these tools. You have provisions to make smooth conversions even to even noisy data. And this software is highly dynamic in the sense that they adjust according to the user. So the experience gets better with use. Give it a try now!Comments are closed.
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