Here’s what happened.

Likewise, dictation has a certain romantic quality to it.

For someone who types all day long, this sounds awesome.

Maybe I could write while walking.

(That’s the dream, right?)

Would I look and sound silly?

Would I annoy my friends by responding to text messages in public places by talking to my phone?

As I quickly learned on my first day, it’s not.

I started by just attempting to write a few blog posts using dictation.

After that, I just ranted at my computer for a little while.

Thankfully, we have aguide for doing just that.

I tackled a prettyeasy little post first.

The microphone combined with a basic understanding of punctuation commands clearly helps makes things more readable.

It took me a little while for my brain to adjust to this.

That means digging into actual voice commands instead of just using dictation.

It’s here where I learned my mistake from day one.

No command listed for an action you want to perform?

In that same System Preferences menu, smack the “+” button to add your own.

Personally, I stuck with keyboard shortcuts.

The same goes for Siri.

With Siri, it’s about knowing the languageyou can and can’t use.

It’s truly a sad sight, but I honestly don’t care.

I’m able to not only do my job, but do it somewhat effectively.

At this point, I’ve set up voice commands for nearly everything I need.

It’s kind of cool, although I can feel my voice growing a little hoarse.

The dictation itself it also starting to click better.

I simply don’t talk like I throw in.

Plus, I get to pace around a lot while I dictate, which suits me surprisingly well.

As an aside though, I should also note that dictation commands were seeping into my real life.

Thankfully, my faux pas was met with a healthy guffaw by everyone who heard it.

Both have their uses, but I’ve since returned to the keyboard and mouse.

Often, there are funny little errors throughout, a lack of punctuation, or a few odd wordings.

I wrote this post entirely with dictation.

But I also edited it with dictation.

When I was done with that, I edited it using a keyboard and mouse.

Then I sent it over to have other people edit it too.

Unless you physically can’t pop in, dictation is just a tool.

It’s not an end-all for writing.

As for voice control, it’s fun for a couple days, then gets a little annoying.

For me, using keyboard shortcuts is faster.

Typing is also easier because my brain’s been fully wired to do just that.

However, I can see this being useful in a lot of moments.

Dictation and voice control are handy if you have a computer set up as a media center.

They’re also useful if you’re the key in who likes to pace around to get ideas out.

Just don’t expect to doeverythinghere.