Hotkeys

What has a hotkey

• Dictation — your language in, the same language out. Free. It has two ways, see below.
• Dictation with translation — you speak yours, English lands in the field. The same two ways.
• Voice prompt (experimental feature) — say what to do with the text, not just what to write.
• Record meeting — starts and ends a recording.
• Subtitles — turns live subtitles on and off.
• Translate under the cursor — enable the mode separately; hold the configured keys and point at text to show its translation.
• Paste the last one — puts the previous result in again.

Using translation under the cursor

First enable the feature in the app menu or in Settings → Translation. Then hold the configured keys and point at accessible text. The default is ⌥⌘. If there is no text under the cursor, the app translates what you previously copied to the clipboard.

The shortcut that switches the entire mode on or off is configured separately; it is different from the keys you hold while pointing at text.

Where to see and change them

The menu bar shows the current combination next to each action, so the menu is always the truth.

Changing them is spread across three tabs of Settings, by what the action belongs to: Dictation holds dictation, dictation with translation, the voice prompt and paste-the-last-one; Recording holds subtitles and meeting recording; Translation holds translate-under-the-cursor.

Hold or tap

The one dictation key has two ways. Hold it and it records while you hold, then pastes the whole text at once, with style. Tap it briefly and the secretary starts: talk as long as you like, the text appears in the field as you speak, and tapping again stops it. The secretary is free. It has no key of its own.

The secretary with translation needs translation access. If a piece cannot be translated, the original text is inserted and the panel tells you. If no target field is found, text is collected and inserted when you stop. Appending to the end while preserving your editing position depends on the app: native macOS editors and Chromium/Electron handle insertion differently.

When a hotkey does nothing

Another app took it. macOS gives a combination to whoever registered it first. Try a different one in Settings before assuming the app is broken.

A permission is missing. Typing into another app’s field needs Accessibility. If it is not granted, the speech is recognised and has nowhere to go. The menu bar shows a warning when this is the case.

The feature is paid and not unlocked. The dictation panel says so rather than doing nothing silently — see Account and plans.