Your dictation handles ordinary sentences fine. Then you say a teammate’s name, or a product like Kubernetes, or a brand like OpenAI, and it falls apart. You get creative misspellings, and you go back and retype the same words yet again. Here is the better news: you only have to fix this once. A couple of quick settings on your Mac, and Dictato will spell your words right from then on.
Why dictation gets names wrong
Transcription runs on context and common usage. Everyday words show up constantly, so they are easy to get right. Proper nouns are a different story. A colleague’s surname or a niche technical term might be rare, ambiguous, or sound like three other words. With no hint about which spelling you mean, the engine guesses, and it guesses wrong a lot.
Add your words to a custom vocabulary
Dictato gives you a vocabulary field: a short text box (around 200 characters) for the proper nouns, product names, and jargon you reach for often. Kubernetes, OpenAI, your manager’s name, that internal project codename. The list stays on your Mac and works as a spelling reference, so when you say one of those words, Dictato already knows how you want it written.
It is a short hint list, not a giant managed dictionary, so keep it to the terms that actually matter to you. A handful of well-chosen entries clears up most of the daily friction.
Lock in a stubborn word with a shortcut
Got a word it keeps butchering no matter what? Set a spoken word shortcut. You say it naturally, and Dictato drops in the exact spelling and capitalization every single time. This is a rule you set, not a guess, so the result is identical on every dictation. Shortcuts live in a simple list, so you add, edit, or delete them as your vocabulary changes.
Let smart cleanup handle the casing
Dictato also has an optional on-device auto-correct setting, off by default. Switch it on and it tidies capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure around your terms, using your vocabulary list as a spelling reference.
One honest caveat: it will not invent words you did not say. For “Kubernetes” to show up, the word needs to be in your vocabulary list, and you need to say it clearly. The cleanup fixes how a term is written. It does not guess what you meant to say.
What just works without setup
Not everything needs a nudge. Numbers, dates, and currency are formatted automatically, with zero setup, straight out of the box. Say a figure and your Mac formats it locally, no setting touched. Names and jargon are the exception that earns a quick one-time entry, and the everyday formatting just happens.
Per-app profiles, if you want them
For extra control, per-app profiles (a Beta feature) let different apps behave differently. Your code editor can leave text exactly as spoken while your email app polishes it, so the same words get the right treatment in each place.
Set your terms once and the retyping stops. It all runs locally on your Mac, you pay once, and it is yours for good, with no account to manage.