How do you dictate in Pages on a Mac?

Open the Pages document, place the insertion point where the text should begin, and choose Edit > Start Dictation ¹. Speak your text, say punctuation by name, and click Done below the microphone when you finish ². Apple Dictation has to be turned on in Keyboard settings first, and the first time you use it, Apple's guided setup appears.

Apple's own page covers Pages on a Mac, and it is short. The steps below follow it, with the settings and the limits that apply to every Mac app.

Pages starts Dictation from the Edit menu

Apple's Pages instructions give one route to start dictation: the Edit menu. Follow these steps in order.

1. Open the document in Pages and place the insertion point where you want the dictated text to begin. To replace text, select it first. To select placeholder text, click it. Apple gives these steps as the start of its instructions ³.
2. Choose Edit > Start Dictation from the menu at the top of your screen ¹.
3. If you have not used dictation before, follow the guided setup that appears first ¹.
4. When the microphone appears, begin speaking.
5. Click Done below the microphone when you finish ².

Apple says the guided setup appears only if you have not used dictation before, so you will not see it on later uses.

Dictation has to be turned on in Keyboard settings first

Pages uses the Mac's own Dictation, and Apple's Pages steps assume it has been set up. If the Start Dictation command does nothing, check the switch first. On a Mac running macOS 27, choose Keyboard in the sidebar of System Settings, go to Dictation, turn it on and click Enable ⁴.

If the names differ on your Mac, look for the Dictation section of Keyboard settings in System Settings. Our page on how to use dictation on a Mac walks through the switch and the first use.

You speak punctuation by name, then click Done

Apple's Pages steps say to add punctuation by speaking its name, and they give comma and apostrophe as the examples ². The full list of spoken commands is on our page of Mac dictation commands.

When you finish, click Done under the microphone, as Apple's Pages steps say.

Dictation stops after 30 seconds without speech

Apple says Mac Dictation stops automatically when it detects no speech for 30 seconds ⁵. Apple's Pages steps do not give a different limit, so expect the same one. If the microphone closes while you think, choose Edit > Start Dictation again and carry on from where you stopped.

Other ways to start Dictation may work in Pages, but Apple's steps do not say so

Apple's Pages steps name only the Edit menu. Apple's general Mac Help lists three ways to start Dictation: the Microphone key on keyboards that have one, the Dictation keyboard shortcut, and Edit > Start Dictation ⁶. We did not test the shortcut in Pages for this page. Try it in an empty document before you rely on it. Our guide to the Mac dictation shortcut lists the key options.

Changing the shortcut or language happens in Keyboard settings

Apple's Pages note says that once dictation is set up, you can change the shortcut key or the language ⁷. Both controls sit in the Dictation settings under Keyboard in System Settings. If you dictate in more than one language, see Apple Dictation languages on Mac for the steps.

With Voice Control on, standard Dictation is not available

Voice Control and standard Dictation do not run side by side. On a Mac, when Voice Control is on, it is used for dictation and standard macOS Dictation is not available ⁸. If you use Voice Control, speak with its commands, and read our guide to Voice Control on Mac for the steps.

If Pages still does not dictate, test another app before changing settings

Test a second app before you change anything in Pages. Dictate a sentence into Notes or Mail. If it works there, the fault is probably in Pages or in the document, not in the Mac's settings. If it fails everywhere, check the Dictation switch, the microphone, and the language, in that order. Our guide to why Mac dictation is not working covers those checks in order.

Other Mac apps work differently. Word and PowerPoint have their own Dictate button, and Google Docs voice typing runs in the browser. For those, read how to dictate in Word on a Mac, how to dictate in PowerPoint on a Mac and dictation in Google Docs on a Mac. Terminal and Mail have their own answers too, in dictation in Terminal on a Mac and how to dictate an email in Mac Mail.

These steps are for Pages on a Mac only. Apple's page does not cover Pages on iPad or iPhone, so do not assume the menu path there. For the whole subject, start with our overview of dictation on a Mac, and see the guide to dictation in Mac apps for the other apps.