Your First Dictation

You dictate by holding a key, speaking, and letting go. Your first attempt takes about ten seconds, and you can do it in whatever app you already have open.

If you have finished setup, you have already done one. The last setup screen is a practice box where you hold your keybind, say something, and watch it typed. This page is about doing the same in a real app.

Try it now

1. Open a text box. Open any app you type in, such as Notes or Mail, and click into a text box so the cursor is blinking.
2. Press and hold. Hold down your keybind, which is the key you chose during setup.
3. Speak. Talk at your normal pace, as you would to a person.
4. Release. Let go of the key. Your words appear at the cursor a moment later.

What you see while it works

Four things happen while EnviousWispr works. Knowing them saves you wondering whether anything is happening at all.

A recording pill appears. A small pill shows up while you are recording, with a meter that moves as you talk. On a Mac that can show it, your words appear in the pill as you speak. That is only a preview: the text that gets pasted comes from the main engine after you let go. The pill does not take focus away from the app you were typing in. Read Live Preview.

A short sound plays. A quiet tick confirms when recording starts and stops. Switch it off under Dictation Settings > Chimes.

The menu bar icon changes. The icon goes from grey to colour while you record, then turns into a spinning wheel while EnviousWispr works out what you said.

The text is pasted for you. By default, whatever was on your clipboard beforehand is put back afterwards, so you do not lose what you had copied. This is the Restore clipboard after paste setting, under Dictation Settings > Clipboard.

Tips for a good first result

• Speak at your normal speed. Slowing down or over-enunciating does not help.
• On your first dictation after opening the app, pause for a beat after pressing the key. Once the microphone has been used recently, EnviousWispr also captures the half second before you press, so later dictations do not need that pause.
• Finished dictations are saved in History, so you can go back and find one later. Click the menu bar icon and choose Open EnviousWispr; the window opens on History. If saving fails, EnviousWispr tells you.
• If you press your cancel keybind by mistake, Escape by default, the dictation is kept and offered back to you with an Undo button. Read Escape Recovery.