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I have just replaced my old 2013 MacBook Air with a new model running Big Sur OS. I have never had any problem using Apple's built-in dictation software, and it mostly still works ok. BUT whatever I try and cannot seem to get a response to the "new paragraph" and "new line" commands.
Does anyone out there have the same problem, or a solution to suggest please?
Thanks
Hey there, kayjayaitch!
Thanks for following up and for trying this out in safe mode. Contacting Apple would be a good idea at this point, to make sure it's been reported and can be investigated thoroughly. You can reach out to them for assistance at Get Support.
Best Regards.
Hey there, kayjayaitch!
Thanks for following up and for trying this out in safe mode. Contacting Apple would be a good idea at this point, to make sure it's been reported and can be investigated thoroughly. You can reach out to them for assistance at Get Support.
Best Regards.
Hello kayjayaitch,
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're running into issues with the commands used when dictating to your Mac. Looking at Commands for dictating text on Mac, it doesn't appear the commands have changed. Have you noticed this when using various applications or does it seem to be focused to when a specific one is in use? Have you tried restarting your MacBook to see if that makes an impact?
You may want to try booting up into safe mode. This process will do a basic check of your disk, similar to using First Aid and may be able to repair any anomalies that are behind the commands not working correctly. After booting into safe mode and using your MacBook for a few minutes, go ahead and reboot normally and test it out.
How to use safe mode on your Mac
Best wishes.
Hi Carl - thanks for your helpful suggestions. I haven't tried rebooting in safe mode as this is a brand-new out-of-the-box MacBook Air! But I have restarted it several times to no effect.
As I said in my first message the problem mainly seems to be with the commands "new line" and "new paragraph"
It seems that if you pause dictation for a few moments, the dictation system switches off, then the line spacing and paragraph breaks are inserted automatically. Or you can manually turn off keyboard dictation and the new lines and paragraph breaks are inserted automatically, then you can switch dictation back on and carry on. This never used happen prior to Big Sur as far as I can recall.
I have tested this on Apple’s Pages app, Word for Mac and Mail and the the same thing happens in all apps. I've also tested it in typing this message and the same thing occurs.
The “new line “ and “new paragraph” commands work fine if I dictate an email on my iPhone.
Just to be sure now, I will do a safe mode reboot, test then re-start and see what happens. However, it certainly seems to me that this is perhaps an issue that Apple need to fix.
Ok - so I've just done the test of this issue in Safe Mode and the issue remains exactly the same. Apple's online user manual says that these commands are available in keyboard dictation mode without doing any more than turning on dictation in keyboard preferences, which I've obviously done!
So, unless you or anyone else out there has any alternative suggestions, I think this is something Apple needs to look at.
Thanks for responding. kareng 12.
Apple support could not really help so I have now provided feedback on this issue to Apple's feedback page. Let's hope it gets some attention!
Dictation
