MASTER YOUR MAC

Control Your Mac With Your Voice

macOS makes it possible.

Voice Control, built into macOS, lets you control your Mac with your voice: Anything you can do with a keyboard, mouse, or trackpad, you can accomplish with spoken commands: Open an app, send an email or message, edit text, change a setting—the possibilities are endless.

Here are some tips to make your Mac do as you say and as you do.

Set it up

To enable Voice Control, go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Voice Control and pick a language.

Pro tip: You can use Voice Control with your Mac's internal microphone, but in noisy environments it helps to have a dedicated mic. AirPods work great.

The onscreen microphone lets you know your Mac is listening.

Take command

Voice Control understands scores of commands for opening apps, sending emails, searching with Spotlight, and much more. Say “Show commands” to see a list.

You can also customize commands—and add your own—by going to System Preferences > Accessibility > Voice Control and clicking Commands.

Add your own Voice Control commands by clicking the plus button.

Speak by numbers

With Voice Control, you can speak instead of click. In any app, simply say “Show numbers” and macOS will display a number next to every button, link, or other clickable item. Speak an item’s number to “click” it; you can also say commands like “Double-click 14.”

This feature works for every app, even if the developer hasn’t included accessibility features.

Pick it—by saying its number—to click it.

Go on the grid

If a number doesn’t appear next to an item you want to click, say “Show grid” to bring up a numbered grid. Now you can say a command like “Click 17,” “Double-click 24,” or “Zoom in 12.”

Want to focus on a smaller area? Say a section number to bring up a zoomed-in subgrid.

Work together

Finally, you can string all these together. For example, to copy a file in Finder using the grid, you might say "Click 20” to select the file and “Copy that,” then navigate to the destination folder and say “Paste here.” You can also copy multiple items using “Command click.”

To get started, try these apps that embrace Voice Control and other accessibility features.