How to Dictate Documentation and Let AI Format It
Writing documentation is mostly the boring part of building software. You already know how the thing works. You just have to type it out, add headings, fix punctuation, and make it readable. Dictation flips that: you talk through the feature the way you would explain it to a teammate, and on-device AI turns your speech into clean, formatted text.
Key takeaways
- Most people speak around three to four times faster than they type, so drafting docs by voice is quicker.
- On-device AI cleanup removes filler, fixes punctuation and grammar, and can output Markdown structure.
- A custom dictionary keeps product names, API terms and library names spelled consistently.
- With a local tool, audio and transcripts never leave your Mac, which matters for internal docs.
Why dictate documentation in the first place?
Documentation has a strange failure mode: the person who understands the system best is often the least motivated to write it down. The knowledge is already in your head, so typing it feels like transcription work. That friction is exactly why so many READMEs stay half-finished. If typing itself has started to feel like a chore, you are not imagining it, and speaking your drafts instead removes most of the resistance.
Dictation changes the shape of the task. Instead of composing sentences one keystroke at a time, you narrate. You explain what the endpoint does, what the flag toggles, what a new contributor needs to run first. Because most people speak around three to four times faster than they type, a first draft that would take twenty minutes of typing can come out in a few spoken minutes. The rough edges get cleaned up automatically, which is the part that used to make voice typing unusable for real writing.
How the format-it-for-me part actually works
The reason older dictation felt clumsy is that it wrote down exactly what you said, including every "um", "so basically" and run-on sentence. Modern on-device dictation adds a second step. After the speech is transcribed, an AI cleanup pass rewrites the raw text: it strips filler words, fixes punctuation and capitalization, repairs grammar, and can even adapt tone. In BlaBlaType this runs locally through Apple Intelligence, so the formatting happens on your Mac rather than on a server.
The formatting is where the custom AI prompt earns its keep. You can tell the cleanup step how you want documentation to look: short headings, bullet lists for steps, inline code for command names, no marketing fluff. You keep speaking in plain language, and the model applies the structure. If you write docs alongside AI coding tools, this is the same habit you already use when you talk to ChatGPT with your voice to draft and refine text.
The five-step workflow
Here is the loop I use for a fresh doc, from empty file to something a teammate can read.
Open the file where the doc lives
Put your cursor in your Markdown editor, README, or docs site. BlaBlaType types system-wide, so there is no separate window to copy out of. Whatever app has focus is where the text lands.
Set a documentation cleanup prompt
In settings, add a custom AI prompt such as: rewrite my speech as clear technical documentation, use Markdown headings and bullet lists, keep command names in inline code, remove filler. This runs on every dictation until you change it.
Speak the section the way you would explain it
Press your shortcut and narrate. Describe what the feature does, the steps to run it, and the gotchas. Do not try to speak punctuation or headings. That is the AI's job, not yours.
Let AI cleanup format the draft
When you stop, the on-device cleanup rewrites the raw transcript into structured Markdown and pastes it at your cursor. Filler is gone, punctuation is fixed, and your headings and lists are in place.
Read it back and patch the details
Skim for accuracy, fix any term the model guessed, and add code blocks. This last pass is far shorter than writing from scratch, because the boring formatting work is already done.
Getting technical terms right
The one place dictation stumbles on documentation is names: your product, your internal services, library names, CLI flags. Left alone, a speech model spells them phonetically and inconsistently. The fix is the custom dictionary. Add the terms you use often, spelled the way you want them, and the model stops guessing. This is the difference between a doc you can ship and one you have to find-and-replace afterward.
It also makes voice a realistic tool inside AI-assisted coding. If you already code by voice on a Mac by speaking prompts to agents, the same dictation setup writes the docs those changes need. Tools like Claude Code and Cursor can generate a lot of code quickly, and the documentation for it tends to lag behind. Dictating that documentation is how you catch up without dreading it.
Dictate your docs, keep them on your Mac
Speak documentation into any editor and let on-device AI format it into clean Markdown. No card needed for the trial.
Download for macOSWhy on-device matters for documentation
Documentation is often the most sensitive text you write. It describes internal architecture, unreleased features, API keys named in examples, and workflows you would never post publicly. A cloud dictation service uploads that audio and text to a server to process it. An on-device tool does not: with BlaBlaType, both the speech recognition and the AI cleanup run locally, so your words never leave the machine. If privacy is your main reason for switching tools, it is worth reading how BlaBlaType compares as a local Superwhisper alternative, and you can see the plans on the pricing page before you commit.
That combination, speaking faster than you type plus AI that formats and stays local, is what turns documentation from a task you avoid into one you can knock out in a single sitting.
Frequently asked questions
Can I dictate documentation and have AI format it automatically?
Yes. With a Mac dictation app like BlaBlaType, you speak into any editor and on-device AI cleanup removes filler words, fixes punctuation and grammar, and turns your raw speech into clean, structured text. You can add a custom prompt that asks for Markdown headings, lists and code hints.
Does dictating documentation upload my text to the cloud?
Not with an on-device tool. BlaBlaType runs speech recognition and AI cleanup locally using Apple Intelligence, so your audio and transcripts never leave your Mac. That matters when your docs describe internal systems or unreleased features.
How do I get Markdown formatting from dictation?
Use a custom AI prompt in your dictation app that asks the model to output Markdown: headings, bullet lists and inline code. You still speak naturally, and the on-device cleanup applies the structure before the text lands in your editor.
Will dictation get technical names and jargon right?
Add product names, API terms and library names to the custom dictionary so the model spells them consistently. Combined with AI cleanup that fixes punctuation and grammar, this keeps documentation accurate without manual find-and-replace.