How to use your Mac's Speech Recognition tool

Mac OS X comes bundled with a Speech Recognition tool that doesn't do a lot out of the box, but it's actually very easy to configure. Here's an idea of what you can do with it.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• mac
• speech
• recognition
• lifehacker
• photoshop
• firefox

[jtmcutter1]

macs is way better than windows

[theronn996]

my mac doesn't understand me too! it doesn't have that blue and green bars! :( HELP ME

[sakshammohan98]

@jtmcutter1 no duh sherlock

[chasedrgc1223]

Listen, I used to hate macs, but I love em now. I still like windows though. Its the best of both worlds.

[ButsersBarrie]

Everyone that claims that their Mac doesn't understand them, you have to configure your voice recognition to do all those things.

[Bryan6231vb]

@theronn996 i have the same problem



[wildfox1989]

@wildfox1989 Nevermind, I already figured it out. I added this command:

activate application "appnamehere"

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "x"

Basically, it automatically switches to the target application, then performs the keystroke. It'll always switch, but I'm not sure if it'll also open the app if it's closed.

[wildfox1989]

I have a question regarding the Photoshop-based voice commands. Using your Applescript commands as a template, when I change the "tell" application to Photoshop instead of System Events, it won't switch tools, but if I leave the Applescript as is and tell System Events to perform the keystrokes instead, the voice commands work in every application. Is there a way to limit those voice commands exclusively to Photoshop?

[natrinez]

I CAN'T DO THAT! :( my Mac doesn't understand me :(

[sean1ers]

@SvenniDal accent or not it wont understand

[joeydixon100]

i have accidently saved two names under one URL (Facebook) in the safari section of the speech commands, i.e, i have saved both the words google and Facebook to get into Facebook but i want google for google and Facebook for Facebook, if there anyway way i can change where the command takes me? thanks. please send a message to my account