In the Accessibility System Preferences pane’s Dictation tab, click the Dictation Commands button and then click Enable Advanced Commands.If you don’t, you’ll be unable to use Dictation without an Internet connection.Ĭhoose Use Enhanced Dictation to dictate without an Internet connection. Check the Use Enhanced Dictation checkbox on the Keyboard System Preferences pane’s Dictation tab.I recommend two tweaks that make Dictation more useful: This lets you dictate on your Mac in any document or field that can accept text input. One of the free options is macOS Dictation, which you enable in the Keyboard System Preferences pane’s Dictation tab.
The most expensive and odious option (IMHO) is the Windows version of Dragon Professional (from $300) running on your Mac under emulation like Parallels Desktop (from $63.99), VMWare Fusion Pro ($40), or Boot Camp (free with macOS).Īs odious as I find this option, it is the only one that compares to the late Dragon Professional For Mac feature-wise.
That being said, the other two options have obvious advantages: They’re both free, they both work on most modern Macs, and they’re both better than no speech recognition at all. The word “Replace” is in quotes for a reason: Only the most expensive and odious option offers the same (or better) features as the late Dragon Professional for Mac. The other two options are decent and free, but they don’t offer features like voice training or extensive customization. I have found three possible options to “replace” Dragon Professional on the Mac.