Guides

Legal dictation on a Mac: letters, memos and briefs by voice, without Dragon

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Legal dictation on a Mac works without Dragon: YapToText, the free app I built, types letters, memos and briefs at your cursor in Word, learns case names, Latin terms and client names from dictionaries you build, and transcribes files from a handheld recorder, with the speech recognition running on your Mac. Dragon is no longer the answer on a Mac: Nuance discontinued the last Dragon for Mac on October 22, 2018, and its Dragon support page lists no Mac product.

I built YapToText because my hands make typing difficult, and I dictate every day. This page is for lawyers, paralegals and legal assistants who draft by voice. One thing up front: I make no compliance, ethics or confidentiality claims about the app. I can tell you what it does; your firm and your bar's rules decide whether it fits. The private dictation guide has the full detail on where your voice goes with each kind of tool.

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. Dragon Legal and your other options on a Mac
  3. Draft a letter, memo or brief in Word
    1. Step 1: Click into the document
    2. Step 2: Tap Right Command and dictate
    3. Step 3: Tap it again
  4. Teach it case names, Latin terms and client names
  5. Transcribe dictation from a handheld recorder
    1. Step 1: Pick the mode
    2. Step 2: Drop the recording
    3. Step 3: Take the text
  6. Write correspondence with Email mode and Auto mode
  7. Privileged material: what I can and cannot tell you
  8. If a name or a letter comes out wrong
  9. What it cannot do
  10. The short version
  11. Questions

Steps

  1. Click into your Word document where the next paragraph belongs.
  2. Tap Right Command, dictate the paragraph, and tap Right Command again.
  3. Press 2 while you talk when a letter must stay exactly as spoken.
  4. On the Dictionaries page, add case names, Latin terms and client names, with the spelling from the raw transcript in Heard.
  5. To transcribe a recorder file, pick a mode in the Transcribe a file card on the Utility page and drop the file on it.
  6. Click Copy and paste the text into your document.

If you learned to dictate on Dragon, here is where it stands on a Mac. Nuance's current line includes Dragon Legal, but the last Mac version of Dragon, Dragon Professional Individual for Mac 6, was discontinued on October 22, 2018, with no updates after that date, and Nuance's Dragon support page lists no Mac product. Nuance also says Dragon Professional is not supported in Parallels for Mac. There is no Dragon Legal to install on a Mac today, so the choice is between what is built in and what runs beside it.

Checked October 3, 2026, on Nuance's, Microsoft's and Apple's support pages. Plans and features change, so check before you rely on one.

Word's DictateApple DictationYapToText
CostNeeds a Microsoft 365 subscriptionFree, built into macOSFree, no paid tier
Where your voice goesSent to Microsoft, which says it does not store your audio or the textOn the Mac or to Siri servers; Keyboard settings says whichStays on your Mac
InternetNeeds a reliable connectionMay need one, per AppleNot needed in normal use
Silence timeoutNot statedStops after 30 seconds of silenceNone by default
Where it worksInside WordAnywhere you can typeAny app you can type in
RequirementMicrosoft 365 and a microphoneDictation turned on in Keyboard settingsApple silicon, macOS 14 or later

Apple Dictation is fine for a short paragraph, but a pause to think longer than 30 seconds ends it; the 30-second limit page explains why. If you are moving from Dragon, the Dragon for Mac page maps each old habit, from custom words to auto-texts, to its YapToText match.

Draft a letter, memo or brief in Word

YapToText types into Word the way it types anywhere: at the cursor, with no Microsoft account involved. It is free on the Mac App Store and needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later. Click where the words go, tap, talk, tap, and the paragraph lands in your document.

Step 1: Click into the document

  • You: Click where the next paragraph of the memo, letter or brief belongs.
  • YapToText: Nothing yet. It types into the app in front, never into its own window.
  • Check: Word's cursor is blinking where the words should go.

Step 2: Tap Right Command and dictate

  • You: Tap Right Command once and say the paragraph. Pause to think as long as you need, or press Space to pause and again to resume.
  • YapToText: Opens the floating panel with your voice as a wave and your words as they form.
  • Check: The wave moves when you speak. If it stays flat, the app is not hearing your microphone yet.

Step 3: Tap it again

  • You: Tap Right Command again.
  • YapToText: Finishes the transcript on your Mac, pastes it at Word's cursor and puts back whatever you had copied before.
  • Check: The paragraph is in the document. If it went to the clipboard instead, Accessibility is not on yet.

A few things matter more in legal drafting than in a chat box:

  • Memos and briefs keep your wording. Word gets no lean from Auto mode, which is on by default, so ordinary prose gets a conservative pass that fixes what was misheard and rewrites nothing. It never turns your argument into a bulleted list unless you say as a bullet list at the end.
  • Letters can turn into emails. A dictation that opens with a greeting such as Dear Judge Alvarez and closes with a sign-off becomes an email in any app, Word included: the body, signed with the name in Settings, Advanced, Your name. If you want the letter exactly as you said it, press 2 for Raw Transcription while you talk. It never touches an AI model.
  • No clock. A dictation runs until you tap the key again, up to a safety stop at 30 minutes that still saves what you said.
  • A look before it lands. Review before inserting, in Settings, Advanced, Text output, holds the finished text in a small editor first: Command Return inserts it and Esc discards it. It is off by default, and while it is on, Only for long dictations (200+ characters) keeps short ones out of it.
  • Fixes by voice. Within 30 seconds, say scratch that to take a dictation back. For a whole sentence, select it, tap Right Option, say the change, such as make it more formal, and tap again.
YapToText's Switch Mode list: Auto, Raw Transcription, Clean Up, Note, Email, Message and Code Comment, numbered 1 to 7.
Figure 1. While you talk, the number keys pick a mode for that one dictation. Raw Transcription, number 2 out of the box, is the one tagged Verbatim.

The cleanup model is small, so read a rewritten paragraph before it goes in a filing. The guide to dictation in Word on a Mac covers Word's own Dictate button and the fixes for Word in particular.

Teach it case names, Latin terms and client names

Legal writing is full of words a speech model rarely hears: case names, parties, Latin, terms of art and your clients' names. YapToText ships no legal word list. You build your own on the Dictionaries page, where each entry pairs what the app hears, in Heard, with the spelling you want, in Replace with. Your dictionary works twice: it primes what Whisper listens for, then fixes what slips through.

Dictionary entry: A case name, written the way you cite it.

Heard: marbury versus madison
Replace with: Marbury v. Madison

What happens: Every marbury versus madison in a dictation is written Marbury v. Madison, and the case name is handed to Whisper as words to listen for. Case is off by default, so any capitalization of the heard words matches.

  • Use what it actually wrote. Heard has to match the speech model's spelling, not yours. Open the dictation in History, click Show pipeline details, and copy the raw transcript's version into Heard.
  • Latin and terms of art. The same method works for voir dire, res judicata or habeas corpus. If a term comes out several ways, add each one, or press Generate variations on the row.
  • One dictionary per matter. Press New Dictionary and name it for the matter. Each dictionary has its own switch, so turn it off when the matter closes instead of deleting it. Whisper's prompt holds about 200 characters, and a dictionary that is switched off is not used, so switching off closed matters keeps the open ones in the prompt.
  • Add a name without typing it. Select a client's name spelled correctly anywhere on screen, tap Right Option, say add this to my dictionary, and tap again.
  • Know where the list lives. All dictionaries live in one file, vocabulary.json, inside the app's own container on your Mac, and nothing syncs it. Export Preset, in Settings, Advanced, carries your dictionaries to another Mac, so treat an exported preset like any other file with client names in it.
YapToText's Dictionaries page: suggested fixes such as thursday to Thursday, and the General dictionary with iPhone and Wi-Fi.
Figure 2. The Dictionaries page: each entry pairs what the app hears with the spelling you want. A dictionary for each matter can be switched off when the matter closes.

Two spoken marks come up in citations. section sign types §, and paragraph sign types ¶. Both are two-word names, so they need no insert in front; they fire at the end of a clause or before a capital letter or a number.

Say: In a citation, right before the section number.

section sign 1983

What happens: The two words become §, followed by the number. Read the citation once, spacing included, before you rely on it.

For boilerplate, such as a firm address or a closing you use on every letter, open the Commands page, then Snippets, press Add Snippets, and put a short phrase under Say this and the text under Inserts, where \n stands for a line break. While the insert prefix is on, which is the default, you say insert and the phrase. The built-in my email signature snippet types Best, and a line break; change it to your own closing. The Dictionaries guide covers Whole word, Case and order, and the spoken punctuation guide lists all 45 marks.

Transcribe dictation from a handheld recorder

If dictation in your office still starts on a handheld recorder or a phone, YapToText transcribes the file on the Utility page, in a card called Transcribe a file, with the same Whisper model that handles live dictation, on your Mac. Pick the mode first, then drop the recording, and the text comes back without the file leaving the Mac.

Step 1: Pick the mode

  • You: Open the Utility page. In the Transcribe a file card's mode menu, pick Raw Transcription for a draft you will edit, Clean Up to drop the ums and false starts, or Email for a dictated letter.
  • YapToText: Uses that mode for the file. Raw Transcription gives exactly what was said, and any other mode runs its cleanup on the result.
  • Check: The menu shows the mode you want.

Step 2: Drop the recording

  • You: Drag the audio file onto the card, or click Choose File and pick it.
  • YapToText: Reads the file by its content, not its extension, and transcribes it on your Mac. A long recording is cut at quiet moments and handled in pieces.
  • Check: The card says it is transcribing your file. If it shows an error, convert the file to a common format such as M4A or WAV and drop that instead.

Step 3: Take the text

  • You: Click Copy and paste into your document, or click Insert to type it into the app you were last using.
  • YapToText: Hands over plain text.
  • Check: The whole dictation is in the document, ready to read against the tape.
  • Formats. Containers it recognizes include M4A, MP3, WAV, AIFF, CAF, FLAC, AMR, MP4 and MOV, and a file has no minute cap.
  • Your words and commands apply. Your dictionaries and spoken commands apply to files too, so a matter's names come out right and new paragraph on the tape becomes a paragraph break.
  • Old punctuation habits. If the person on the tape says comma and period on their own, those stay words, because Require the word insert before a command is on by default. Turning it off on the Commands page makes every name fire bare, ordinary words included, so switch it back on afterwards.
  • Whether a copy is kept. The Utility card does not save the transcript to History. Transcribe file in the menu bar panel or on the History page does file it in History, under the file's name.
  • No speaker names or timestamps. The text comes back as plain words.
YapToText's menu bar panel: Start Dictation, mode and microphone pickers, Transcribe file, Regenerate and Insert last.
Figure 3. Transcribe file in the menu bar panel is the second route for a recording. Unlike the Utility card, it files the transcript in History under the file's name.

The guide to transcribing an audio file on a Mac has the full list of formats and fixes.

Write correspondence with Email mode and Auto mode

Correspondence is where Auto mode earns its keep. With Auto on, the default, it reads what you said first and the app second. Fill in Settings, Advanced, Your name once, and every dictated email is signed by you, never by a placeholder.

  • Mail apps lean Email. Mail, Outlook, Spark, Airmail and Superhuman tip a dictation toward Email when the words alone do not decide. Six words or fewer stay exactly as spoken, even there.
  • What Email mode writes. The body only, never a Subject line. It adds a greeting only if you named someone, signs with Your name, never writes [Your Name], and does not add pleasantries you did not say.
  • Replies. Select the message you are answering before you start, and your dictation is written to fit.
  • Email every time in one app. Turn Auto mode off, open Email mode's editor on the Modes page and add Outlook or Mail under Apps that use this mode. While Auto is on, it decides instead.

Say: At the very end of a dictation to opposing counsel, while Auto mode is on.

make that formal

What happens: The phrase is not typed. Auto mode rewrites the dictation in a formal, professional tone. As an email works the same way, and forces the email format on a dictation Auto would have left alone.

Pressing 5 while you talk, Email in the default order, makes one dictation an email. Outlook's own Dictate button needs Microsoft 365 and sends your speech to Microsoft, per Microsoft's support page. The guides to dictation in Outlook for Mac and dictation in Mac Mail go further, and the Auto mode guide lists every phrase it follows.

Privileged material: what I can and cannot tell you

I make no compliance, ethics or confidentiality claims about YapToText. Nothing on this page is legal advice or a statement that the app meets any rule. I can describe what the app does; whether that is enough for privileged material is for your firm and your bar's rules to decide.

What it does, for whoever makes that call:

  • Processing. Whisper turns your voice into words and the cleanup model tidies them, both on your Mac. There is no account and no analytics, and the only network use is a model download you start yourself.
  • Kept copies. By default History keeps your last 500 dictations with their recordings, on your Mac, and deletes anything older than 30 days. Settings, Advanced, History & audio can stop saving recordings, keep This session only, or turn history off.
  • Files. A recording transcribed on the Utility card is not saved to History.
  • After the words land. The app you dictate into decides where the text goes next.
  • Code. The source is public on GitHub under the GPL-3.0, so it can be read before it is installed.

The private dictation guide covers the rest: where cloud apps and Apple Dictation send your voice, a one-minute test with Wi-Fi off, and every History setting step by step.

If a name or a letter comes out wrong

Climb this ladder, smallest step first:

  1. Fix it on the spot. Within 30 seconds, say scratch that, or replace, the wrong word, with, the right word. Only an exact whole phrase counts.
  2. Read the raw transcript. In History, click Show pipeline details on the dictation. A name that is wrong in the raw line belongs in a dictionary, spelled the way the raw line has it.
  3. Get your exact words back. If a mode changed more than you wanted, choose Copy Raw Transcript from the entry's export menu in History, or press 2 for Raw Transcription next time.
  4. Stop a letter becoming an email. Press 2 or 3 while you talk, so that dictation uses Raw Transcription or Clean Up.
  5. Turn on Accessibility. If the words land on the clipboard instead of in Word, switch YapToText on in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility.
  6. Silence a beep. If Word plays the alert sound when the words land, open the Dictation page, choose Turn off in another app in the Delivery card, and pick Word.
A YapToText History entry with pipeline details open: raw transcript, cleaned transcript, mode, delivery, target app and timings.
Figure 4. Show pipeline details puts what the speech model heard above the text you got. A party name that is wrong in the raw line is your next dictionary entry.

The History guide covers search, playback and Copy Raw Transcript.

What it cannot do

  • Ship a legal vocabulary. There is no legal word list. You build your own in Dictionaries.
  • Check a citation. It spells a case name the way your dictionary says. It does not know whether the case exists or says what you cite it for.
  • Format a brief. Its spoken commands are punctuation, emoji and snippets, so headings, styles and tables of authorities come from Word.
  • Label speakers. A transcribed recording has no speaker names and no timestamps.
  • Drive the Mac. Clicking and menus by voice are Voice Control's job.
  • Run on older Macs. It needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later, and nothing is claimed for Intel Macs.
  • Make a compliance promise. It describes what it does, and your firm decides the rest.

It writes what you dictate; the judgment about what goes in the filing stays yours.

The short version

  • Dragon Legal. Not available on a Mac; the last Dragon for Mac was discontinued on October 22, 2018.
  • Drafting. Tap Right Command in Word, talk, tap again; press 2 when a letter must stay exactly as spoken.
  • Vocabulary. One dictionary per matter, with case names and Latin spelled the way the raw transcript shows them.
  • Recordings. Drop the file on the Transcribe a file card, and the Utility card keeps no copy in History.

Dictate on the Mac, keep your voice on the Mac, and let your firm make the confidentiality call.

If something here does not match what the app does in your office, 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

Is there a Dragon Legal for Mac?

No. Nuance's current line includes Dragon Legal, but the last Dragon for Mac was discontinued on October 22, 2018, and Nuance's Dragon support page lists no Mac product.

What dictation software can lawyers use on a Mac?

Apple Dictation is free and built in, and Word's Dictate comes with Microsoft 365. YapToText, which I built, is free, types into any app on your Mac, keeps your own legal word lists and transcribes recorder files, all on device.

How do I add case names and Latin terms to dictation on a Mac?

In YapToText, open the Dictionaries page, put the spelling the speech model produced in Heard and the correct spelling in Replace with, and press Add. Your entries also prime the speech model to listen for those words.

Can I transcribe dictation from a handheld recorder on a Mac?

Yes. Drop the file on the Transcribe a file card on YapToText's Utility page, pick a mode, and copy the text. Files such as M4A, MP3 and WAV work; convert other formats to one of those first.

Is YapToText approved for privileged or confidential client material?

I make no compliance, ethics or confidentiality claims. Dictation runs on your Mac and nothing is uploaded, but your firm and your bar's rules decide whether that fits.

Can I dictate into Word on a Mac without Microsoft 365?

Yes. Word's own Dictate needs a Microsoft 365 subscription, but Apple Dictation and YapToText both type into Word at the cursor for free.