If the sound is already on your computer, you can play it in the background using any installed audio player app. The Speech Dictation icon will popup indicating that your computer is now listening for speech audio.įrom here, it’s as simple as playing the audio that you want to transcribe into your computer’s microphone.

Simply open a new document, and press the shortcut key that you selected from the Dictation and Speech window. You can use anything from TextEdit, Apple Pages, Microsoft Word, or Google Docs. For this purpose, you need some kind of text editor. Once your settings are in place, it’s time to begin the transcription. After you have selected all the options in the Dictation and Speech window, you can click out of the window. Lastly, if you will be transcribing a language other than your default system language, select that appropriate language from the Language drop-down list.ħ. The default is pressing the Function (Fn) key twice.Ħ. Make a note of what the Shortcut key is listed, and change it if you wish. Though this only needs to happen the first time.ĥ. Note: This may require a relatively large download on some systems. Real-time transcription helps correct any mistakes in automatic transcription. While still in the Dictation and Speech window, you can also check the Enhanced Dictation option, which will show you real-time results of transcribed audio. If you have a separate microphone or input source, you can choose it here.Ĥ. On most systems, the Internal Microphone will be the default choice. In the Dictation and Speech window, select the option to turn dictation on, and make sure to select the appropriate microphone input. In the System Preferences window, select Dictation and Speech.ģ. Here’s the Prescription for Automatic TranscriptionĢ. For most purposes, you can achieve satisfactory results using your Mac’s built-in functionality without investing in additional hardware or human transcription services. If your source material has a lot of distortion or garbled speech, obviously automatic transcription will be less effective. Your hair will thank you! Easy Audio and Video Transcription on MacĪudio transcription on a mac can take many forms, and your success rate will ultimately depend upon the quality of your source recording. Follow these simple instructions to get the job done.

Have no fear! There’s an easy way to transcribe audio to text on Mac. How can you quickly get the audio recording into a text format, without pulling your hair out in frustration?

Whether you have a video that you need a text transcription for, an audiobook, or just some voice notes, the question is the same. Audio transcription is something that we generally don’t think about until we need to do it.

Convert audio file to text word