Apple Productivity

Use Apple Notes to Transcribe Videos

Apple Notes’ dictation feature is a handy way to transcribe YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikToks. I make muffins

The Muffin Transcription (illustration by author)

Apple Notes dictation is a feature I’ve always wanted to use, but it didn’t work fore me. Why? It would be great for writing if my thoughts spewed out of my head without hesitation, redundancy, or repetition. If that were true, all I’d ever do is dictate rather than type or handwrite my articles.

In practice, hesitation, redundancy, and repetition are a writing way of life for me. No matter how good Apple Notes dictation capabilities got, my chaotic mind was the weak link.

And Apple has made considerable improvements to dictation. There is no time limit on it, and you can pause as often as you like. Typing while you dictate is a piece of cake. Oh, I so wanted to use it. Even my Ulster accent doesn’t faze it.

Then I had an epiphany. I was following a muffin recipe on YouTube and kept having to pause and rewind to check details. It would be handy to have a transcript. What if I used Apple Notes Dictation to create a transcript? Hmmm.

Of course, many YouTube videos have transcripts, but not all. Even if they do, wouldn’t it be good…