Is voice to text available as a Plug In to InCopy

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 13, 2021
4 replies
2849 views

Going forward, it would be nice to increase our years of avoiding carpal tunnel syndrome by typing less, using a dictatation app.

Can we get anything to have voice to text directly into InCopy or InDesign? Is this available? A plug in? Could a script be written for this? I would prefer to type directly into InCopy, using a voice dictation program. I really don't want to use Apple Dictation, just to convert it to a Word.doc to Place, as it seems as anything in a Word.doc leaves me open to formatting problems later on in InDesign.

Or, can folks give me their experience with the following procedure? If I end up with a Word.doc, just with basic text, not even subtitles, or italics, or anything, only 12 pt. New Times Roman regular, for example, and I use the Place function in InDesign or InCopy with Remove all Formatting, will that leave me with reliable text to use in InDesign? And not have formatting glitches?

Type

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Correct answer Jeffrey_Smith

You can use Apple Dictation directly into an Indesign document, it doesn't need to go to Word. Insert your cursor into a text frame with paragraph style applied, press your fn key twice, speak, and text is entered and applied the style. This is not going to format a subhead mingled within.

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matthewg94060432

Participating Frequently

In addition to voice-to-text to replace typing, I am wondering if anyone knows of an indd plug-in or software that would allow for voice for commands. I work hours and hours each day in indd, photoshop, and illustrator, and I definitely notice my hands getting tired some days. It would be so much easier to have the option to speak commands, like "format menu: cut" (or "comand X" in that case) etc., then to have to click on the menu options or type the keyboard shortcuts. I recognize I would still need to use the mouse a lot, but having even a small percentage of my handwork switched to verbal would be beneficial. And with so many freelancers working from home now, they can talk without disturbing other people. I imagine AI will soon enough be built into this type of software, anyway, but is there anything like that available now? (And if it is of help for anyone to know, there are foot pedals for mouse clicking that sometimes help give your hands a rest. I use mine when I feel my hands are getting tired.) Also, since it was discussed in this post re copying/pasting w/ and without formatting, I actually find "Plain Text Copy" incredibly helpful in terms of swapping between copying and pasting with formatting or without formatting, so it's a set-and-forget, until you want to change it.

https://apps.apple.com/au/app/plain-text-copy/id1297888715?ign-mpt=uo%3D2&mt=12&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20apple%2Fitunes_store_top_paid_mac_apps_au%20%28Apple%20iTunes%20Store%20%3A%20iTunes%20Store%3A%20Top%20Paid%20Mac%20Apps%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=feedburner

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Do you have a fully ergonomic station? Or are you working on a laptop?

I find the trend of people doing what we do on the abysmal ergo of a laptop to be... mystifying and appalling. But I guess fatigue, backache and CTS are small prices for "portability."

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Here is more than you wanted to know:

"When you dictate text, what you say is sent to Apple to be converted to text. To help your Mac recognize what you're saying, other information is sent as well, such as the names of your contacts." Yikes.

Mike Witherell

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

From Apple Support

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Correct answer

Community Expert

You can use Apple Dictation directly into an Indesign document, it doesn't need to go to Word. Insert your cursor into a text frame with paragraph style applied, press your fn key twice, speak, and text is entered and applied the style. This is not going to format a subhead mingled within.

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Troy DeckertAuthor

Known Participant

Thank for letting us know. I'll try it. That is excellent news! Yes, we must still go back and format subheads, etc, but being able to avoid all that typing is great, and avoid even worrying about Word glitches. Creating text right in InDesign is great. (I still added a feature request as Mr. Cross suggested.)