Today, I'm going to teach you how to use voice control to verbally control any Mac-running
macOS Catalina or later.
If you or someone you know is living with paralysis, this feature is potentially life-changing.
How to use voice control on your Mac.
Coming up next on TechTalk America [Music] David: Hi, folks.
A few quick things before we begin.
The first is I have created a free PDF guide that goes hand-in-hand with today's class.
You can find the link to that down below in the video description.
That guide gives you a list of all of the available verbal commands as well as a few
customs ones that I'm going to teach you how to create later on in this video.
Part of the reason why I decided to do this is because, if you are paralyzed, that way
you or someone else can print that document and potentially prop it up in front of you.
I have a quick story that I want to share with all of you before we begin this class
just to kind of put things into perspective.
Several years ago and well before I had a YouTube channel, I had a client of mine who
was diagnosed with ALS.
I worked together with this gentleman over several sessions and while it was very new
territory for me at that time, I was able to teach him how to control his Mac using
only his voice, back then using Dragon Dictation.
Today, a more advanced version of that technology now comes built into every Mac running macOS
Catalina or later.
For me, as a teacher, creating this class has been a very full-circle moment and I just
wanted to say that I really hope that this video finds it's way to the people who truly
need it because, despite a couple of bugs here and there, this technology is potentially
life-changing to anyone dealing with paralysis.
I also wanted to take a brief moment to recognize the hard work and dedication of Sarah Herrlinger
as well as her team.
Sarah is the Global Accessibility Chief at Apple who's responsible for making voice control
possible.
Good work, Sarah and team.
Last thing before we begin, a couple of weeks ago, I announced in one of my videos that
while I love making all of these videos for all of you, the reality of my situation is
that my current production space where I make all of these content has become increasingly
challenging to work in over the years.
There are a lot of interruptions, I'm completely out of space, and because of that, I have
decided to try to make one of my childhood dreams come true.
I've decided to build a small production studio where I hope to be able to create video content
like this for years to come.
So, I'm asking today, if my videos have helped you over the years, I could really use your
support and I welcome you to contribute whatever amount you feel comfortable giving.
You can help support me through venmo@techtalkamerica.
If you prefer PayPal there is a link down below in the video description or if your
thing is a good old fashion cheque in the mail, the P.O.
Box address is P.O.
Box 1566 Provincetown Massachusetts 02657.
I love my job and I thank all of you for your support and without any further ado, let's
begin the class and switch to my Mac.
Let's start by talking about how to enable voice control.
As long as your Mac is running macOS Catalina or later, just go to the Apple icon at the
top left.
From there, navigate to System Preferences.
Next, let's click on Accessibility and when we scroll down on this list here on the left,
just click on Voice Control.
And finally, click Enable.
If it's the first time that you have ever done this on your Mac, your Mac will need
to download a few files from the internet which can take a couple of minutes.
At this point, you should see a microphone icon appear at the bottom right corner of
your Mac and the first commands that we're going to go over today are how to make your
Mac start and stop listening for commands.
Those two phrases are "Wake Up" and "Go to Sleep."
The next few commands all have to do with basic navigation.
So, let's learn two more, which are "Show Grid" and "Show Numbers."
If you decide to use the grid option, you'll see a numeric grid appear over your screen.
At this point, you would then say the number of the approximate area where you want to
click.
Then, you'll see another grid appear and from there you can either say yet another number
which will make it zoom in even further or you can say the word "Click" followed by the
corresponding number.
So, let's say I want to open up this photo of me.
I could just say, "Double Click 13."
Now, the other option for basic navigation is you can say, "Show Numbers" which will
then place numbers on every clickable button on the screen.
From there, you just say the corresponding number in order to initiate a click.
"14."
One thing that I wanted to note is that when using this option, you do not actually need
to say the word "Click."
You can just simply say the number and that will do.
One really helpful resource that will definitely come in handy is if you ever forget how to
phrase a command, you can just say "Show Commands" and you'll see a pop-up screen appear at the
top right corner of your Mac with a list of suggested commands.
Another trick that I wanted to mention at the beginning of this class is that I believe
that Siri can play a major role in helping you get things done.
I mean, just to give you a short list of some of the things that you can now do with Siri
includes everything from composing emails, sending and receiving text messages, creating
appointments, setting reminders, playing music, launching applications, the list goes on and
on.
There is one specific detail that I'd like to mention about Siri when using it with voice
control.
So, normally, if you wanted to summon Siri on something like your iPhone or your iPad,
the verbal command that you would normally use is [silence].
But if you wanted to summon Siri on your Mac while using voice control, the correct way
to phrase it is to say "Open, Siri."
I thought this would be a good thing to mention, that way if you have other IOS devices within
shouting distance, they don't suddenly all go off at the same time and start yelling
at each other and before you know it, it feels a little bit like a Siri family reunion.
One of the things that I discovered when I was learning how to use voice control was
that I found it to be very difficult to be able to visually organize my windows so that
I could cleanly switch back and forth between apps.
That was when I got an idea.
I think one of the most potentially useful features to accessibility users, is the ability
to run apps in full-screen mode but the problem is that the number of commands that you actually
have to give to set that up, takes a painfully long time.
And that is the reason why right now, I would like to teach you how to create a few custom
commands that will simplify this process.
To create a custom command, let's go back into Voice Control's preferences and let's
click here where it says "Commands."
I'm going to click the little plus button here at the bottom left to create a new command
and the first one that I want to teach you is "Screen Right" and when we're done, we're
going to create a second called "Screen Left."
You'll see how this comes into play in a moment.
As you can see here in the first field, it has asked me to write my verbal command, which
is, of course, going to be "Screen Right."
In the next field, we're going to keep where it says "Any Application" and where it says
"Perform", we are going to click into that field and choose "Press Keyboard Shortcut."
At this point, I'm going to press the Control Key and my Right Arrow Key.
I'll now click the Plus symbol and add a second command so that when I say "Screen Left" it
reverses the action.
Finally, we're going to create one more command which I'm going to call "Full-Screen Mode"
and the key command for this particular one is Control, Command and the letter F as in
Frank.
Here is where this is all going.
I think a lot of you will find that voice control is a lot easier to use when you only
have one app on the screen at a time.
So, my recommendation is that when you first start your computer, you can begin by opening
each of the apps that you plan to use and then immediately follow that by saying "Full-Screen
Mode" and anytime you need to switch back and forth between those apps, you can just
simply say "Screen Right" or "Screen Left."
By the way, you should also know that if you ever need to get apps out of full-screen mode,
you can simply just say "Full-Screen Mode" again.
Folks, we're going to take a very brief commercial break so don't go anywhere.
We'll be right back.
[Silence] David: At this point, I want to demonstrate a few different types of common
operations using voice control.
In the process of recording this next segment, I'm going to go back and forth between giving
verbal commands and then explaining the purpose of them to all of you.
So, let's say I want to check my email.
I'll start by waking up Voice Control.
"Wake Up."
It gives a little tone when it recognizes a command.
So, if you don't hear that tone, it either means that you phrased something incorrectly
or it just didn't understand you.
Let's now launch the mail program.
"Open Mail."
Now, at this point, you'll see that I have multiple columns where I could potentially
scroll.
For example, I could scroll down on my list of emails here on the left or I could scroll
down on this message that is currently opened on the right-hand side.
To tell the computer that I want to scroll down on this open email, I'm going to use
the grid command to initiate a click and then you'll note that when I do that, I'm specifically
choosing an area where there isn't one of those images just because that may open up
a hyperlink.
So, I'm just going to tell it to click somewhere off to the side but inside that column.
"Show grid.
Click 41.
Scroll down.
Scroll up.
Scroll to top.
Scroll to bottom."
Get the idea?
Now, let's say I want to create a new email.
The way to phrase this is to say, "New Item."
"New item."
If the person that you're sending a message to is already in your contacts or previous
recipients, you can simply say their name; however, if you need to spell out an email
address, that's a little bit different and admittedly, a bit more difficult.
Actually, one of the things that I found to be the most difficult was when it came to
spelling an email address.
Here's the reason why.
To spell a word, you have to say the word "letter" followed by the letter that you want
to input.
If you want to trigger the "at" symbol, the phrase it is to say "at sign."
So, for example, let's pretend that this is the email address that I'm trying to input
and by the way, that is not my real email address.
To spell this out, I would need to say "letter D, letter A, letter V, letter I, letter D,
at sign, letter A, letter P, letter P, letter L, letter E, dot com."
There are a few reasons why spelling an email address can actually be a very frustrating
operation.
The first is that if you don't spell quickly or even pause just for a moment in between
letters, the Mac's auto-suggest feature tends to kick in which can add additional spaces
in between letters in the final address.
I do have an idea for a relatively simple fix for this type of situation and just in
case anyone at Apple is actually watching this video, I feel like this issue could be
easily remedied just by adding number support to the virtual keyboard.
Let me show you what I mean.
If you say the words "Show Keyboard," you'll see a virtual keyboard appear on the screen,
but there's one little problem.
"Show numbers."
As you can see here, there is no number support for the virtual keyboard.
It just applies the numbers feature to whatever app is running in the background.
So, Apple, if you happen to see this video, my request is to not only add number support
to the virtual keyboard so that a user could effectively spell numerically, but I would
also like to request that that virtual keyboard be made a little bit larger.
And, just in case Apple actually grants that request, I also wanted to say that the virtual
keyboard is potentially a perfect app to use with the brand new sidecar feature in macOS
Catalina.
That way if you have an iPad next to your computer, you can basically move the virtual
keyboard to that screen.
Sorry to get sidetracked there but I thought it was important to mention that.
Now, getting back to our topic, anytime you need to jump to the next field, for example,
when writing an email, you can use the phrase "Next Field."
This is also an important command to remember whenever you're on the web and filling out
something like an online form.
Another useful command that I wanted to teach you is how to correct a word or phrase when
dictation gets it wrong.
All you need to do is say the word "Correct" followed by the incorrect word or phrase that
needs editing.
You'll then see a list of options that you can choose from just by saying the corresponding
number.
And finally, I couldn't end this lesson without mentioning that if you ever need to undo something,
you can either say "Undo That" or "Scratch That" to go back a step.
Keep in mind, any of the other commands that we didn't cover in this class, you will find
a list of all of them in my free PDF guide and the link to that is down below in the
video description.; If this video helped you, you can show your support by making a financial
contribution of whatever amount you want which will go towards the construction of my, one
day, new production studio.
You can contribute through venmo@techtalkamerica, by PayPal through the link down below in the
video description, or if you prefer to send a cheque in the mail, the address is P.O.
Box 1566 Provincetown Massachusetts 02657.
Thank you so much for watching everyone this is David A. Cox with TechTalk America.
Class dismissed.