Edit Text With Your Voice

Voice Control, new in macOS Catalina, lets you control your Mac with your voice. But it also lets you type, edit, and rearrange text in any application.

To get started, go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Voice Control and pick a language. (A microphone icon appears onscreen to let you know your Mac is listening.) Then place your cursor in a document or text field and start speaking.

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.

To add a comma, period, question mark, or other punctuation, just say it. You can also use “open parentheses” and “close parentheses”—and commands like “new paragraph,” “new line,” and “tab key.”

Want to add an emoji? You can dictate those too: Try “happy face emoji” or “eggplant emoji.”

Here’s what you’d say to dictate the email shown below:

Dear Angela comma
new paragraph
Let's meet up for lunch at that favorite pizzeria of yours tomorrow period Does one o'clock work for you question mark 
new paragraph
See you tomorrow comma 
new paragraph
Haley happy face emoji.

Editing is just as intuitive. Move the cursor by saying “move up” or “move left.” To jump around, try “move forward three characters,” “move back two words,” “move up four lines,” or “go to end.”

To make an edit, use similarly descriptive commands: “select previous word,” “select next sentence,” or “delete that.” Or say “correct that” to delete a word and see a list of suggested replacements.

Voice Control offers scores of commands for navigating, selecting, editing, and deleting text. You can see the full list—and create your own—by going to System Preferences > Accessibility > Voice Control and clicking Commands.