Improved Dictation Using Virtual Assistant

Writing on small form factor devices such as smartphones is inefficient due to the small dimensions of such devices. This disclosure describes techniques that support natural-language, context-aware voice commands that refer to individual words, sentences, paragraphs, sections, chapters, etc. of text content. Various features are supported, such as: automatically splitting text into paragraphs; creating lists; using different fonts for subheadings, chapter titles, etc.; inserting footnotes; adding citations and references; etc. To assist the user in navigating the document, the transcribed text is displayed overlaid with annotations that indicate available commands; numbered textual components; etc. Machine learning and natural language processing techniques are used to automatically differentiate between text and commands