Dictate Your Messages With This Mac Keyboard Shortcut
Mac users who enjoy multitasking: There is a keyboard shortcut to enable text dictation so you can speak instead of typing.
Just place the cursor where you want to enter text (it will work in any application where you can enter text), double-tap the Fn key and start speaking. A microphone icon will appear to let you know that dictation is active.
When you’re done with the message, press Fn twice again. You can also click Done below the icon or press Return. Apple recommends keeping individual dictations for 40 seconds or less, so don’t expect to have to dictate a multi-page document in one sitting.
If you need to insert punctuation marks or formatting, Apple has a guide to dictation commands .
If you’ve never used dictation on your computer, you may see a pop-up asking if you want to enable it the first time you use the shortcut.
Alternatively, you can enable keyboard dictation in your device’s settings. Go to Apple menu> System Preferences> Keyboard> Dictation and turn it on. You can also change the keyboard shortcut to Command keys, or customize your own keyboard shortcut if you like.
As with any voice recognition tool, dictation on your Mac won’t always be 100% accurate, so check your text before sending it in a message or work Slack.