One would have to wonder why Mac OS has a harder time doing dictation than the IOS does?  I have always felt that Siri dictation on the iPad and iPhone works very well.  That doesn’t mean you don’t have to read your text. You still need to read whatever you dictate just to be sure that it got right.  One of the real enhancements to dictation in iOS8 was he ability to be able to see the text as you speak it.  But out-of-the-box, your Mac even in Yosemite doesn’t work that way. It works away IOS used to work in that you didn’t see the text until you’re finished with a dictation.

What many people don’t realize is that MacOS also has an enhanced dictation mode. Enhance dictation basically turns the dictation function into the way IOS works today. As you speak your text shows up on the screen. Enhance dictation mode is easy to turn on. If you go to system preferences, and select dictation and speech. The first step is to turn dictation on. Once you’ve done that you’ll notice there’s a check box for use enhanced dictation.  The first time you check the box your computer will download the dictation libraries and install them. Once that’s completed you’ll find whenever you dictate to your computer the text will show up as you speak.

While you’re in the dictation and speech dialogue you can also change the shortcut key. By default it’s set to press the function key twice to turn on dictation. If that keystroke doesn’t work for you you can easily change it to a few other options Apple provides.

With enhanced dictation turned on your find your Mac actually understand you a little better and you have better comfort in doing dictation because you can see the words come up as you speak. Give it a try.