1. Use the right Mac voice system
Standard Dictation enters text at the insertion point and accepts a defined set of formatting and symbol phrases while it listens. Voice Control is the accessibility system for navigating apps, clicking controls, editing text and speaking broader commands.
Apple states that standard macOS Dictation is unavailable while Voice Control is on. If a command list does not match what your Mac is doing, first identify which of those two systems is active.
2. Speak punctuation by name
For explicit punctuation, say the mark where it belongs: “comma,” “period,” “question mark,” “exclamation mark,” “colon” or “semicolon.” Apple also documents paired commands such as “quote” and “end quote,” plus open and close commands for parentheses, square brackets, curly brackets and angle brackets.
In supported languages, Dictation can add commas, periods and question marks automatically. Auto-punctuation is a separate Keyboard → Dictation setting; turning it on does not remove the explicit spoken commands.
- Say “quote” before quoted text and “end quote” after it.
- Say “open parenthesis” and “close parenthesis” for a parenthetical phrase.
- Say “dash,” “hyphen” or “ellipsis” for the specific mark Apple documents.
3. Create lines, paragraphs and tight strings
Say “new line” for one return and “new paragraph” for a paragraph break. Apple also documents “tab key” for the next tab stop.
For an email address, file-like token or another phrase that should not contain spaces, say “no space on,” dictate the phrase, then say “no space off.” Review the result because natural-language recognition can still interpret the spoken characters differently.
4. Control capitalisation deliberately
Say “all caps” to format the next word in uppercase. Use “all caps on” before a phrase and “all caps off” afterward to return to the default case.
Apple documents “caps on” as Title Case for the following phrase and “caps off” as the return to default case. These commands change formatting; they do not teach Dictation a new vocabulary word.
5. Enter common symbols without reaching for the keyboard
Apple’s current list includes spoken names for common typing symbols such as “at sign,” “hashtag sign,” “ampersand,” “asterisk,” “forward slash,” “backslash,” “underscore,” “vertical bar,” “degree sign” and “per cent sign.”
The same list covers mathematical and currency marks, including plus, minus, equal, greater-than, less-than, dollar, euro, pound sterling, cent and yen signs. Language and regional wording can differ, so use the command list shown for your selected language.
6. If a Dictation command is not recognised
Confirm that standard Dictation—not Voice Control—is active, then test the command in a plain TextEdit document. Verify the selected Dictation language and check Apple’s current list for that version and locale.
If ordinary speech is also failing, use the separate Mac Dictation troubleshooting guide. A command problem and a silent microphone are different failures.
7. Know when command vocabulary is not the workflow you need
Spoken punctuation is useful when you want literal control. It is less useful when the goal is to speak naturally and review polished prose afterward. Those are different writing modes.
IraVoice 0.7.1 uses local speech recognition and supported on-device formatting on macOS 26+ Apple-silicon Macs. It can remove filler and shape a structured brief, but it does not replace Apple’s Voice Control navigation commands.