You can dictate into any Mac app with one shortcut: press it, talk, press it again, and your words are ready where your cursor is. This guide covers how to use it well and the settings worth changing. What you dictate is transcribed on your Mac, works offline, and is never sent to us.
How to dictate into any Mac app
The text goes where the cursor is, so put it there first.
- Click into the field you want to fill: the body of an email, a Slack message, a document, a chat prompt, a form.
- Press Option-Space. The voice typing indicator shows that the microphone is live.
- Speak naturally, in full sentences.
- Press Option-Space again to finish, or simply stop talking: voice typing stops after a pause (the Silence Timeout, 3 seconds by default).
- If you granted Accessibility, the text appears at the cursor. If not, ThinkScribe shows "Copied: press ⌘V to paste": press Command-V.
You can also start from the menu bar item Voice Typing, or from Transcription > Start Voice Typing in ThinkScribe's own menu, which shows the current shortcut. If Option-Space does nothing, open Settings > Voice Typing and check that Enable Global Hotkey is on.
How to cancel a dictation before it lands
If you change your mind mid-sentence, press Escape while it is listening. The dictation is discarded. This is the Press Escape to Cancel setting in Settings > Voice Typing, on by default.
Change the shortcut
- Open Settings (Command-comma) and go to Voice Typing.
- Under Global Hotkey, set the combination you want.
- A single function key also works, for example F5, which gives you a one-key dictation button.
Voice typing on the Mac is press to start, press to stop. There is no hold-to-talk on the Mac, and it does not use the Fn key.
Floating bar or menu bar icon
Settings > Voice Typing lets you choose how voice typing shows that it is listening:
- Floating Bar: a small bar on screen while you dictate.
- Menu Bar Icon: nothing on screen except the status item at the top.
Either way the shortcut works the same. The optional floating mic button offered in the welcome is part of the same choice.
Insert directly or paste
Without extra permissions, ThinkScribe copies the dictation and you paste it with Command-V. That works in every app. If you grant the optional Accessibility permission, you get Direct insertion: the text lands at the cursor without you pasting. Direct insertion is nicer if you dictate often; the copy-and-paste route is fine if you prefer not to grant Accessibility.
Fix names and jargon
If a colleague's surname or a product name keeps coming out wrong, add it under Settings > Vocabulary. Words you correct three or more times in your transcripts are added automatically. The custom vocabulary guide explains how that works and its limits.
Keep dictation ready
- ThinkScribe keeps voice typing available from the menu bar even with the main window closed.
- The Type With Your Voice step of the welcome lets you have ThinkScribe open at login, so the shortcut works from the moment you sign in.
- To rewrite what you just dictated, use the buttons that appear above the floating bar for a few seconds after the text lands: Professional, Shorten, or AI Prompt, which turns a spoken request into a clear prompt for an AI chat. The Clean switch, shown when you hover over the bar, removes filler words and fixes punctuation as you go.
For the full setup from scratch, see voice typing on Mac. For every way to turn speech into text on your devices, read the complete voice to text guide, or see the voice typing use case.
Frequently asked questions
Does voice typing on Mac work offline?
Yes. Voice typing is transcribed on your Mac and works with Wi-Fi turned off. What you dictate is never sent to us.
How do I dictate into Slack or Mail on a Mac?
Click into the message field so the cursor is blinking in it, press Option-Space, say the message, then press Option-Space again or pause. With Accessibility granted the text lands at the cursor; otherwise press Command-V to paste it. The same works in any app where you can paste text.
Can I hold a key instead of pressing it twice?
No. On the Mac, voice typing is press to start and press to stop, and it also stops by itself after a pause. Setting a single function key as the shortcut makes it a one-key gesture, and Escape cancels.
Which languages can I dictate in?
Voice typing works in the same 28 languages ThinkScribe transcribes, including English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Pick the language you speak so the first words come out right.
