Dictating

How dictation works day to day and how to make it fit your hands, from hold or hands-free and spoken punctuation to choosing a microphone.

• Why is nothing typed when I dictate?The app almost always says why in a short message; here is every cause it reports, in the order you are likely to hit them, and the one case with no message.
• Hold to talk, or press once to start?Every dictation key does both: hold it to record only while it is down, or start hands-free (how depends on the key) and press it once more to stop.
• What is live typing, and should I turn it off?Live typing shows words as you speak instead of all at once at the end; it ships off, because one complete result is more reliable for longer dictation.
• Why do apps like VS Code, Slack, or Chrome need a different setting?On a Mac, apps built on Electron or Chromium only say which field is focused when asked. One setting asks them, and it is on by default. Windows needs nothing.
• Which punctuation can I say out loud?Say comma, full stop, question mark, exclamation mark, new line or new paragraph for the mark or the break; fillers like um and uh are removed on their own.
• How do I choose which microphone it uses?Pick one in Settings, General, Microphone or the menu bar icon; left alone, it follows your computer's default input and switches when you plug in a headset.
• What do the floating icon and the menu bar icon do?Click the floating icon to dictate, hover for Add task, Prompts and the other buttons, or drag it; the menu bar icon has the rest, without opening the window.