Another of the improvements added in OS X 10.9 Mavericks and that we already review in the BetaIt is the possibility of creating texts by dictating to the Mac. This is not new to the Mavericks operating system, the previous OS X Mountain Lion also has it, but in this latest operating system from Cupertino they offer us the possibility of dictating to the Mac without the need to be connected to any data network or WiFi. The steps to activate this improved dictation tool for our Mac are really simple, when adding this option if a WiFi or data connection is required for download. Let's see how to activate it on our Mac:
The first thing we are going to do is open the menu System preferences from our Mac. Once opened we access the download of the improved dictation and speech options from the menu with the same name: Dictation and speaking.
Within 'Dictation and speaking' we just have to click on the √ Use "Enhanced Dictation". Once pressed, the download will start automatically, in the lower left part of the window it will show us the minutes that are left for the download process to finish.
And that's it, you don't need to restart or anything like that.
We can choose the dictation language we want and also within the same menu we can also change the key that comes by default to activate the 'Dictation and speech' function which is double click on 'fn'. Once configured to our liking, we can only enjoy this option offered by the new Apple OS X Mavericks operating system without having to be connected to the network to use this dictation function.
Dictation understands basic commands related to text, such as "all caps", "new paragraph" and "new line". When you say "period," "comma," "question mark," or "exclamation point," Dictation adds that punctuation mark to the current text field. When saying a calendar date (like "January 30, 1983"), you don't need to say "comma." The comma is detected and entered automatically.
In addition to allowing the use of the integrated microphone of our Mac as well we can connect a third party external microphone using the connection types compatible with OS X and our Mac. If you use a different microphone than the one built into your Mac, you may have to change the input device in the Dictation and Speech preferences panel
The minimum requirements In order to use this dictation and speech feature, you must be on OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 or later.
More information - How to easily activate the Emoji keyboard in OS X Mavericks
With apologies for my "Spanish Google" - do you have any reports of Enhanced Dictation not working properly? It's a known problem in UK English: performance is good at first, but then turns to rubbish. See this discussion (in English), https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5495526?start=0&tstart=0, which has some contributions from Spanish speakers.
Hi Charles Butcher,
I personally have no bugs in the dictation and speaking feature but I will peruse those Apple thx support forums.
I checked the "Use Enhanced Dictation" box, but it doesn't download anything. What I can do? 🙁
@Jordi: That's good news for Spanish speakers. For the UK English I don't think it is fixed in 10.9.2.
@Sandra: What happens when Fn + Fn is pressed? Maybe that will trigger the download. You will notice the download, because if I remember correctly, it is around 500MB.
Hi Charles !! Pressing Fn + Fn brings up the function and allows me to dictate smoothly. I imagine that at some point it was downloaded and I did not realize it. Thanks for answering. Regards!!
Hello Sandra! A stroke of luck, and I'm glad it worked.
Hello, I am trying to download the dictation in Spanish but I get «an unexpected error occurred while downloading, try again». The thing is, I've been trying for several days; What I can do? Pd.- I'm with Captain