Fact · Dictation on Mac
After Enhanced Dictation was removed, Catalina's dictation lacked formatting commands such as 'new paragraph' and turned itself off after a few moments without speech.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“This means it lacks all the useful formatting commands, like ‘new paragraph’, and will turn itself off after a few moments without speech input.”
Dictation changes in Catalina: for the worse?, Eclectic Light Company, 2019, Paragraph on Catalina changes.
Open the original- What it measures
- The article calls the loss of formatting commands and the silence timeout the main problems for people who used Enhanced Dictation to edit long documents.
- What it does not show
- The article describes the author's testing in 2019. Later releases restored and extended formatting commands, so this describes Catalina only.