How to write superscript and subscript by voice on a Mac

Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.

The official Russian list of Mac Dictation commands has no command for superscript or subscript, neither in the “Formatting” section nor in “Math symbols”. Potok (potok.now) does not execute voice commands. You dictate the formula in words and set the index with the keyboard after inserting: 2 steps instead of one. Voice editing on a Mac is in a separate feature, “Voice Control”.

A superscript is a character raised above the line, like the exponent of a number; a subscript is lowered below the line, like the digits in a chemical formula. You would like to say a formula in one phrase, but an index is text formatting, and dictation alone cannot produce it.

Why Mac Dictation has no command for an index

The official Russian list of Mac Dictation has no command for an index. The “Formatting” section lists “novaya stroka” (new line), “novyy abzats” (new paragraph), “chislo” (number), “rimskaya tsifra” (Roman numeral), “slitno” (no space), “razdelno” (spaced) and “klavisha Tab” (Tab key). The “Math symbols” section has “ravno” (equals), “bolshe” (greater than), “menshe” (less than), “minus”, the multiplication sign and “plyus” (plus). There is no index in either place.

Do not confuse them: the “uppercase” command from the “Capital letters” section has nothing to do with an index; it writes Every Word With A Capital.

Voice editing and formatting on a Mac is provided by another feature, “Voice Control”. It controls the Mac, dictates and edits text, and it has Russian. While it is on, the standard Dictation is unavailable.

How to write superscript and subscript by voice on a Mac: step by step

The way is this: you dictate the formula in words, and set the index with the keyboard after the text is inserted.

1. Turn on Dictation: Apple menu → “System Settings” → “Keyboard” → the “Dictation” section → turn it on, then “Enable”.
2. Place the cursor in the document and start dictation with the microphone key, if there is one in the row of function keys, with the dictation key combination, or through “Edit” → “Start Dictation”.
3. Dictate the formula in words, for example: say “iks v stepeni dva, voda — ash dva o” (“x to the power of two, water: H two O”). Take the signs from the commands in “Math symbols”, and before a value that should become a number, say the command “chislo” (“number”).
4. Finish dictating and select the character that should become an index.
5. Format it as a superscript or subscript with the keyboard, using the tools of the app where the text is typed.

In Potok, steps 1–3 are replaced by a hotkey, Ctrl+Space by default: hold, speak, release. It writes numbers as digits by itself, and the index is likewise set with the keyboard. Other ways to dictate on a computer are collected in the article on typing text by voice on a computer and in the section with dictation instructions.

Where Potok will not help with indexes

Potok has no voice commands or voice editing, so raising a digit to a power or lowering it in a formula by voice through it will not work: the index is set with the keyboard after inserting. Potok is a cloud service, speech is recognized on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet. If the audio was saved, the recording stays in the history and can be recognized again with the “Re-recognize” button when the connection returns. Potok has no apps for Android and iPhone, so you cannot dictate formulas from a phone through it.

Frequently asked questions

Built-in dictation and Potok

Primary sources: support.apple.com · support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com