Guides

How to dictate capital letters on a Mac: caps on, all caps, and fixing the rest

By ยท Published

To dictate capital letters on a Mac with Apple Dictation, say all caps before a word to put that word in capitals, or say caps on, the phrase, then caps off to put the phrase in Title Case. all caps on and all caps off do the same for a whole phrase in capitals. Those five commands are the capitals section of Apple's Commands for dictating text page.

YapToText, the free dictation app I built, has no spoken caps command. Whisper writes the capitals as it hears you, the cleanup modes fix capitalization, a dictionary entry keeps a name or brand spelled your way every time, and Quick Edit capitalizes a word you select. I built it because my hands make typing difficult, and I dictate every day, and fixing words I had already written used to mean going back to the keyboard. Every other Apple command, from comma to copyright sign, is on the Mac dictation commands list.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreDownload for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

On this page: 11 sections
  1. Steps
  2. Apple's commands for capital letters
    1. Step 1: Start Dictation where the words go
    2. Step 2: Say the on command, the phrase, then the off command
  3. Capitals you did not ask for in Apple Dictation
    1. Fix a capital that already landed
  4. How capitals come out in YapToText
    1. Capitals in the middle of a sentence
  5. Capitalize a word after it lands with Quick Edit
    1. Step 1: Select the words
    2. Step 2: Tap Right Option and say the change
    3. Step 3: Tap it again
  6. Keep a name or brand capitalized every time
    1. Step 1: Add the entry
    2. Or type it with a snippet
  7. Apple Dictation and YapToText side by side
  8. If capitals come out wrong
  9. What each one cannot do
  10. The short version
  11. Questions

Steps

  1. In Apple Dictation, say all caps before a word to put that word in capitals.
  2. Say caps on, the phrase, then caps off to put a phrase in Title Case.
  3. In YapToText, select a word that landed with the wrong capitals.
  4. Tap Right Option, say capitalize this, and tap Right Option again.
  5. For a name that is wrong every time, add a dictionary entry with what Whisper heard in Heard and your spelling in Replace with.

Apple's commands for capital letters

Apple lists five capitals commands, and they are always available while you dictate, according to its page. The on and off commands work as a pair: say the on command, the phrase, then the off command.

SayWhat it does
caps onFormats the next phrase in Title Case
caps offGoes back to normal capitals
all capsPuts the next word in capitals
all caps onPuts the next phrase in capitals
all caps offGoes back to normal capitals

Step 1: Start Dictation where the words go

  • You: Click where the text belongs and press your Dictation shortcut or the Microphone key.
  • macOS: Highlights the cursor and makes it pulse, or plays a tone, when it is ready.
  • Check: Words appear as you speak. If nothing happens, check that Dictation is on in System Settings, Keyboard.

Step 2: Say the on command, the phrase, then the off command

  • You: Say caps on, the words you want in Title Case, then caps off, and carry on talking.
  • macOS: Formats the phrase between the two commands in Title Case.
  • Check: The text after caps off is back to normal capitals. If it is not, say caps off again.

Say: In Apple Dictation, just before the one word you want in capitals.

all caps

What happens: Apple's list says the next word comes out in capitals. For more than one word, use all caps on and all caps off instead.

Two details from the list itself. It has no separate command for capitalizing only the first letter of one word, so caps on and caps off around that one word is the nearest command on the list. And it has no lowercase command: caps off and all caps off only go back to normal capitals. Dictation's features vary by language and region, so these commands may not exist in every language you dictate in. The guide to using dictation on a Mac covers turning Dictation on and choosing a shortcut.

Capitals you did not ask for in Apple Dictation

Not every capital is one you asked for. When Apple Dictation puts capitals where you did not want them, or leaves one out, these are the places to look. A forgotten off command looks exactly like random capitals.

  • A command still running. caps on keeps going until caps off, and all caps on until all caps off. Say the off command and the next words come out normally.
  • Capitalize words automatically. In System Settings, Keyboard, Text Input, click Edit. Apple says this setting capitalizes the first word of a sentence and proper nouns as you type. Apple describes it for typing, and whether it touches dictated text is untested, so switch it off for a test if capitals keep appearing.
  • Auto-punctuation. In supported languages Dictation adds commas, periods and question marks on its own, and Apple does not explain how it decides where a sentence ends. The Mac dictation auto-punctuation guide shows how to turn that off.

Fix a capital that already landed

On a Mac with Apple silicon you can type while Dictation keeps listening, so you can select a word and retype it without stopping. Words Dictation was unsure of are underlined in blue: click one to choose an alternative. To change case by voice instead, Voice Control, Apple's separate voice feature under Accessibility, can do it: say Show numbers, then a command such as Uppercase followed by the number of a line or word. While Voice Control is on, standard Dictation is not available. The Voice Control commands guide covers the rest of its editing commands.

How capitals come out in YapToText

YapToText runs Whisper on your Mac, and Whisper writes the capitals along with the words, the same way it punctuates ordinary speech by itself. It does not always get them right: the raw transcript in Figure 1 has thursday in lowercase. What happens next depends on the mode. Whisper writes the capitals first, and the mode decides whether anything fixes them.

  • Auto mode, the default. Ordinary prose gets a careful pass that fixes misheard words, punctuation and capitalization, and keeps your wording. Six words or fewer, or a short casual message, stay exactly as spoken, so a short dictation keeps Whisper's capitals.
  • Clean Up. Fixes grammar, capitalization and punctuation, removes filler words and false starts, and keeps your wording and tone. With Auto mode on, the default, it is number 3, so press 3 while you talk to use it for one dictation.
  • Raw Transcription. Literal speech to text with basic punctuation and no AI, so the capitals are Whisper's. Press 2 while you talk for one dictation.
  • Code Comment. Keeps identifiers and casing exactly as spoken, for comments and commit messages. The dictation for coding guide says what else to expect there.
A YapToText History entry with pipeline details open: raw transcript, cleaned transcript, mode, delivery, target app and timings.
Figure 1. Show pipeline details in History puts what Whisper heard above what was typed, so you can see a lowercase thursday in the raw transcript become Thursday in the cleaned one.

There is no caps on or all caps in YapToText's lists: the Commands page holds its 45 punctuation names, 158 emoji and a set of snippets, and the spoken punctuation guide lists them. To find out which step wrote a capital, open the dictation in History and click Show pipeline details. The raw transcript, what Whisper heard, sits above the final text.

Capitals in the middle of a sentence

Click into the middle of a sentence and dictate, and Intelligent Insert, on by default, lowercases your first word so it fits. The word I, its contractions such as I'll, and words whose second letter is also a capital, like an acronym, keep their capitals. A name that starts your dictation mid-sentence is lowercased too, and the next section fixes it in one step. Dictate over selected text instead, and the first letter's case follows the selection. The Intelligent Insert guide has the full rules.

Capitalize a word after it lands with Quick Edit

For one word or a sentence that came out with the wrong capitals, select it and say the change. That is Quick Edit, and its key is Right Option by default. Exact case changes skip the AI and are instant.

Step 1: Select the words

  • You: Highlight the word or words in any app.
  • YapToText: Nothing yet.
  • Check: The words are highlighted.

Step 2: Tap Right Option and say the change

  • You: Tap Right Option and say capitalize this.
  • YapToText: Opens the Quick Edit card, which says Listening for your edit and shows your words in quotes.
  • Check: The card shows capitalize this in quotes.

Step 3: Tap it again

  • You: Tap Right Option again.
  • YapToText: Applies the case change on your Mac and replaces the selection.
  • Check: The card says Done. If the text was already that way, it says Nothing changed or Already like that.

Say: After tapping the Quick Edit key, with the word selected.

capitalize this

What happens: The selection is replaced with the capitalized version, without the cleanup model.

The Quick Edit card with a green ring and the word Done
Figure 2. Done means the selection was replaced. When nothing changed, the card says that instead, so you never have to guess.

Capitalize this is the case change the Quick Edit guide covers. I have not tested other wordings, such as make this all caps or make this lowercase. Try one on a scratch line first; the card always says how it went, including That didn't sound like an edit. Quick Edit needs Accessibility, and it cannot read a selection in a password field.

Keep a name or brand capitalized every time

A name, a brand or a product with odd capitals is a job for a dictionary entry, not a fix each time. Each entry says when you hear this, write that, and it applies to every dictation from then on. Fix a capital once in a dictionary, and it stays fixed.

Step 1: Add the entry

  • You: On the Dictionaries page, in a dictionary such as General, type the spelling Whisper produced in Heard and your spelling in Replace with, then press Add.
  • YapToText: Saves it and uses it from your next dictation.
  • Check: The entry appears with a word tag, which means Whole word is on.

Dictionary entry: A surname that keeps landing in lowercase.

Heard: patel
Replace with: Patel

What happens: The name is written Patel, and Patel is also handed to Whisper as a word to listen for.

  • Case is off by default. So iphone, Iphone and IPHONE all match one entry. Turn Case on only to match one exact capitalization.
  • It runs twice. On the raw transcript, and again after any AI cleanup, so a cleanup cannot undo your capitals.
  • Some ship ready. A fresh install starts with entries for iPhone, iPad, iMac, AirPods, macOS, YouTube, Wi-Fi and the app's own name, added only when you have no entries of your own.
  • Add one without typing. Select the word spelled your way, tap Right Option and say add this to my dictionary. It goes in exactly as written.
YapToText's Dictionaries page: suggested fixes such as thursday to Thursday, and the General dictionary with iPhone and Wi-Fi.
Figure 3. Suggested for you lists capitals the app keeps having to fix, such as thursday and patel, each with a count and buttons to add or dismiss it.

With Suggest fixes from my dictations on, the default, YapToText looks through up to 400 recent dictations for words it keeps having to recapitalize, and a fix seen at least three times shows up under Suggested for you. Nothing is added until you press the plus button. The dictionaries guide covers Whole word, order and folders, and custom vocabulary for Mac dictation compares it with Apple's options.

Or type it with a snippet

For text you want typed exactly, capitals and all, every time you ask, make a snippet. On the Commands page, open the Snippets tab, press Add, type a phrase under Say this and the text under Inserts. With Require the word "insert" before a command on, the default, you say insert and the phrase. Snippets go in after any cleanup, so a rewrite cannot drop or move them. I have not tested whether Intelligent Insert lowercases the first letter of a snippet mid-sentence, so check the first one you use there.

Apple Dictation and YapToText side by side

Checked October 5, 2026, on Apple's support pages and YapToText's own help pages.

You wantApple DictationYapToText
One word in capitalsSay all caps before itSelect it after it lands and use Quick Edit; all caps wording is untested
A phrase in Title Casecaps on, the phrase, caps offNo spoken command
A phrase in capitalsall caps on, the phrase, all caps offNo spoken command
Capitalize a word after it landsRetype it, or use Voice Control, which can change the case of a numbered wordSelect it and say capitalize this with Quick Edit
A name spelled your way every timeNot covered by the commands listA dictionary entry, which also primes Whisper
Sentence capitals fixed for youNot described on the commands pageAuto mode's careful pass and Clean Up fix capitalization

Apple lets you say the capitals as you go; YapToText fixes them before or after the words land. YapToText is free on the Mac App Store and needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later.

If capitals come out wrong

Climb this ladder, smallest step first:

  1. Close the capitals. In Apple Dictation, say caps off or all caps off if you started either one.
  2. Test the typing setting. In Keyboard settings, Text Input, Edit, switch off Capitalize words automatically and dictate the same sentence again.
  3. In YapToText, read the raw transcript. History, Show pipeline details, shows whether Whisper wrote the capital or a later step changed it.
  4. Check the mode. A short dictation under Auto stays as spoken. Press 3 for Clean Up while you talk if you want capitalization fixed.
  5. A name lowercased mid-sentence. That is Intelligent Insert. Select the name and say capitalize this with Quick Edit, or turn Intelligent Insert off for that app in the Delivery card on the Dictation page.
  6. The same word wrong every time. Add a dictionary entry using the spelling from the raw transcript in Heard, and check that Case is off.
  7. Tell me. Open a GitHub issue with what you said, the raw transcript and what landed.

What each one cannot do

  • Apple Dictation. Its capitals commands cover Title Case and all capitals, with no command for a single initial capital or for lowercase, and a forgotten off command keeps going. The commands vary by language and region.
  • YapToText. It has no spoken caps command, so you cannot say all caps mid-sentence. Auto mode leaves six words or fewer as spoken, Intelligent Insert lowercases a name that starts a dictation mid-sentence, and the cleanup model is small and runs on your Mac, so read what lands. Quick Edit's case change is capitalize this, and I have not tested other case wordings. It needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later, and nothing is claimed for Intel Macs.

The short version

  • Apple Dictation. all caps before a word; caps on and caps off around a phrase for Title Case.
  • YapToText, as you talk. Whisper writes the capitals, and Auto mode or Clean Up fixes them.
  • YapToText, after. Select the word, tap Right Option and say capitalize this.
  • Names and brands. A dictionary entry keeps them capitalized your way every time.

Say the capitals with Apple, or let YapToText fix them and teach it the names that matter.

If a capital lands wrong in a way this page does not cover, open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreDownload for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Sources

Questions

How do you capitalize a word with dictation on a Mac?

In Apple Dictation, say all caps before a word to put it in capitals, or caps on, the phrase, then caps off for Title Case. In YapToText, select the word after it lands, tap Right Option, say capitalize this and tap again.

How do I turn on all caps in Mac dictation?

Say all caps on, the phrase, then all caps off. Apple's list says all caps on puts the next phrase in capitals and all caps off goes back to normal capitals.

Why is Mac dictation capitalizing everything?

A caps on or all caps on command may still be running, so say caps off or all caps off. If capitals keep appearing, test with Capitalize words automatically switched off in Keyboard settings, Text Input, Edit.

Does YapToText have a caps on command?

No. Whisper writes the capitals, Auto mode and Clean Up fix capitalization, and Quick Edit capitalizes a word you select when you say capitalize this.

How do I make dictation spell a brand name with the right capitals?

In YapToText, add a dictionary entry with the spelling Whisper produces in Heard and your spelling in Replace with. Case is off by default, so any capitalization of the heard word matches.