Do you know you that hidden beneath your Macs hood you’ve Apple’s Speech Recognition software? A little known feature of OS X that enables you to control your computer virtually hands-free by simply talking to it.

We’ll show you how to control Safari using spoken commands. Once you’ve learnt the basics, you can apply these same methods to control any other Mac application.

• Open up System Preferences (top left ) Then click on the Speech icon (under System)
• Press the On button beside Speakable Items and make sure Internal microphone is selected from the drop-down menu. If you have a pair of Apple earphones with the mic included, rather use those for better command recognition results.

• A floating circular window will appear on your Desktop. This is your Speech Feedback Window. Clicking on the grey triangle at its base will reveal all the spoken commands that are already built in to your Mac. Now close System Preferences.
• To use Speech Recognition you hold down the ESC key in the top left corner of your keyboard while you speak. Let’s do a quick test to see if everything is working. Hold down the ESC key and sayWhat time is it?You don’t need to shout or overly pronounce your words for this to work, just speak clearly. The more you use Speech Recognition on your Mac you’ll get a better sense of how to speak in a way that your Mac understands. If your Mac understood your question correctly it will respond by telling you the time, also giving you some visual feedback

• If your Mac didn’t respond it may be that you’re in a noisy environment and your Mac isn’t able to distinguish what you’re saying. You may need to find a quieter spot to do this. The microphone level may also be too low for your Mac to hear you in which case you need to open up System Preferences -> Speech once more and click on the Calibrate button next to the Internal microphone menu. check that the microphone slider is
  set high enough so that when you speak, the level stays within the green area of the meter.