For example, if you speak this command while a menu item is selected, Voice Control helps you make a command for choosing that menu item. To quickly add a new command, you can say “Make this speakable.” Voice Control will help you configure the new command based on the context. For example, “Undo that” works with several phrases, including “Undo this” and “Scratch that.” You can also select a command to find out whether other phrases work with that command.

Use the checkboxes to turn commands on or off.

You can open a Finder item, open a URL, paste text, paste data from the clipboard, press a keyboard shortcut, select a menu item, or run an Automator workflow.

Perform: Choose the action to perform.

While using: Choose whether your Mac performs the action only when you're using a particular app.

When I say: Enter the word or phrase that you want to be able to speak to perform the action.

To add a new command, click the add button (+) or say “Click add.” Then configure these options to define the command:.

Click Commands or say “Click Commands.” The complete list of all commands opens.

Open Voice Control preferences, such as by saying “Open Voice Control preferences.”.

You can also create your own vocabulary for use with dictation. Click Send.” Or to replace a phrase, say “Replace I’m almost there with I just arrived.” For example, to dictate and then send a birthday greeting in Messages, you could say “Happy Birthday. Voice Control understands contextual cues, so you can seamlessly transition between text dictation and commands. This feature requires macOS Ventura or later and isn't available in all languages.

To dictate character by character, say “Spelling Mode,” then speak each character.

Or say “Delete all” to delete everything and start over. For example, say “delete that” and Voice Control knows to delete what you just typed.

To delete text, you can choose from many delete commands.

Say “numeral” to format your next phrase as a number.

To format text, try “Bold that” or “Capitalize that,” for example.

To move around and select text, you can use commands like “Move up two sentences” or “Move forward one paragraph” or “Select previous word” or “Select next paragraph.”.

To enter a punctuation mark, symbol, or emoji, just speak its name, such as “question mark” or “percent sign” or “happy emoji.” These may vary by language or dialect.Dictation converts your spoken words into text. When the cursor is in a document, email message, text message, or other text field, you can dictate continuously.

Mac voice to text shortcut