FeatherweightThe short answer: click into the email and hold fn with Featherweight Dictation. Say the whole email, greeting to sign-off, and let go: it's typed with the greeting, paragraphs and sign-off on their own lines, and the ums gone. With the Mac's own Dictation, press the Microphone key, talk, and say “new paragraph” between thoughts.
With Featherweight Dictation
- Click into the body of a new email or a reply.
- Hold fn and say it the way you would out loud, greeting and sign-off included.
- Let go. About a second later it's typed, laid out as an email.
Say this:
“Hey Priya, um, can you send the deck by five, actually six? Thanks, Rohit”
And this is typed:
Hey Priya, Can you send the deck by 6? Thanks, Rohit
In Apple Mail, Outlook, Spark, Superhuman, Mimestream, Airmail, Thunderbird, Proton Mail and HEY, it knows it's writing an email. In Gmail in your browser, it goes by what you say: a greeting and a sign-off are enough. It never adds a greeting, sign-off or name you didn't say.
With the Mac's built-in Dictation
- Turn on Dictation in System Settings, under Keyboard (see how to dictate on a Mac).
- Click into the body of the email.
- Press the Microphone key or your Dictation shortcut, and talk.
- Say “new line” after the greeting and “new paragraph” between thoughts. Press Esc when you're done.
- Read it through and tidy it before you send.
Tips for dictating email
- Say the greeting and the sign-off out loud. They're kept as you say them.
- Change topic, and a new paragraph starts. Short paragraphs read better on a phone anyway.
- Spell out addresses: “priya at example dot com” types priya@example.com.
- Numbers, times and money come out right: “half past nine” types 9:30, and “two lakh rupees” types ₹2,00,000.
- Correct yourself out loud: “let's meet Friday, oh no, Thursday” types “let's meet Thursday”.