Your first dictation in YapToText, step by step

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To dictate on a MacBook with YapToText, click where the words should go, tap Right Command, talk, and tap it again. Your words are typed at the cursor in whatever app you were in, and the speech recognition runs on your Mac, never on a server. It works the same on any Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later, laptop or desktop.

My hands make typing difficult, so this is the one gesture I use all day. For Apple's built-in Dictation instead, how to use dictation on a Mac has the steps.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreThis app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

On this page: 9 sections
  1. Steps
  2. Grant two permissions first
    1. Step 1: Let it hear you
    2. Step 2: Let it type into other apps
  3. Tap, talk, tap
    1. Step 3: Put the cursor where the words go
    2. Step 4: Tap Right Command and talk
    3. Step 5: Tap it again
  4. Keys and buttons that work while you talk
  5. What happens after you stop
  6. Limits worth knowing
  7. If nothing lands
  8. The short version
  9. Questions

Steps

  1. Open YapToText and, on the Home page, press Continue next to Microphone and Grant next to Accessibility.
  2. In System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility, switch YapToText on.
  3. Click where you want the words to go.
  4. Tap Right Command and say what you want to write.
  5. Tap Right Command again. Your words are typed at the cursor.

Grant two permissions first

YapToText asks for two permissions, and both live in System Settings, Privacy & Security. Microphone lets it hear you. Accessibility lets it type into other apps, use the Right Command key and read selected text. Without Accessibility nothing is lost: every dictation is still transcribed and copied to your clipboard.

Step 1: Let it hear you

  • You: On the YapToText Home page, in the Get set up card, press Continue next to Microphone.
  • macOS: Asks once whether YapToText may use the microphone.
  • Check: A green check appears next to Microphone. If you said no before, the button opens System Settings, Privacy & Security, Microphone, where you switch YapToText on.

Step 2: Let it type into other apps

  • You: In the same card, press Grant next to Accessibility.
  • macOS: Opens System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility. An app cannot switch this on for itself.
  • Check: The switch next to YapToText is on, and within a couple of seconds the Get set up card leaves the Home page, because nothing is missing anymore. If it will not stay on, press Show in Finder and drag the app into the list, then press Recheck.
YapToText's Home page: the Start Dictation button, the Keys card with Right Command and Right Option, and Intelligent Insert.
Figure 1. With both permissions granted, the Get set up card is gone, and the Home page opens on Start Dictation and the Keys card, where Right Command is already the dictation key.

If you installed with Homebrew instead of the Mac App Store, download a speech model on the AI Models page first: the Homebrew build ships without models and cannot dictate until one is installed. The install guide walks through it.

Tap, talk, tap

The dictation itself is one key, tapped twice. Tap, talk, tap, and the words land where your cursor was.

Step 3: Put the cursor where the words go

  • You: Click into an email, a note, a chat box or a document, anywhere you could type.
  • YapToText: Nothing yet. When the words are ready, it puts them in the app in front, never in its own window.
  • Check: The text cursor is blinking where you want the words.

Step 4: Tap Right Command and talk

  • You: Tap Right Command once and say what you want to write, the way you would say it to a person.
  • YapToText: Opens the floating panel with your voice as a wave and your words as they form, and the speech bubble on the capybara in the menu bar turns red.
  • Check: The wave moves when you speak. If it stays flat, the app is not hearing your microphone yet.
YapToText's floating dictation panel on a Mac: a live waveform, the sentence being typed, and cancel, pause and stop buttons.
Figure 2. The wave follows your voice and your words form under it. If the wave stays flat while you talk, the app is not hearing your microphone yet.

Step 5: Tap it again

  • You: Tap Right Command again.
  • YapToText: Finishes the transcript on your Mac, pastes it at your cursor and puts back whatever you had copied before.
  • Check: The words are in your document. If they went to the clipboard instead, Accessibility is not on yet.

Command shortcuts still work: a tap only counts when you press nothing else with it, so Command C never starts a dictation. If holding a key suits you better than tapping, set the dictation key to Hold to talk. YapToText's keys covers that and every other key.

Keys and buttons that work while you talk

While a dictation is running, three more keys work. They are captured only then, so they type normally the rest of the time.

  • Space. Pauses and resumes. The space is not typed into your document.
  • Esc. Cancels, so nothing is typed. The words are still saved to History, marked as canceled, unless you turn off Keep canceled dictations in Settings, Advanced, History & audio.
  • 1 to 9. Pick a mode for this dictation. With Auto mode on, which is the default, the pick lasts for this one dictation.

Canceling stops the typing, not the saving. If you would rather not use a key at all, click the capybara in the menu bar and press Start Dictation, then the stop button when you are done. It does the same job as the dictation key, and the menu bar guide covers the rest of that panel.

YapToText's menu bar panel: Start Dictation, mode and microphone pickers, Transcribe file, Regenerate and Insert last.
Figure 3. Click the capybara in the menu bar for this panel. Start Dictation does the same job as the dictation key, no key needed.

What happens after you stop

When you stop, the wave winds into a spinning ring while your Mac works. Whisper Large v3 Turbo (Q5) turns your voice into text, and then the mode decides what happens to it. With Auto mode on, a letter with a greeting and a sign-off comes out as an email, short casual chat stays exactly as spoken, and everything else gets a careful pass that fixes what was misheard and rewrites nothing. That pass runs on a second model, Phi-3.5 Mini Instruct. Raw Transcription types exactly what you said and never touches it. Both models run on your Mac, so your voice never leaves it.

A YapToText History entry with pipeline details open: raw transcript, cleaned transcript, mode, delivery, target app and timings.
Figure 4. History keeps what the speech model heard above the text you got, with the mode, what Auto detected, the cleanup model and that dictation's own stop-to-text time.

The first dictation after launch waits a moment while the model loads. Models stay loaded for 2 minutes after use by default, and the next dictation after an unload takes a few extra seconds while the model reloads. The Energy page sets how long they stay. Every dictation's own stop-to-text time is in History.

Whisper punctuates ordinary speech by itself. For a mark it cannot guess, say its name at the end of the clause, such as question mark or new paragraph. Spoken punctuation has the full list and the one rule about the word insert.

Limits worth knowing

  • Apple silicon only. YapToText needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later. Nothing is claimed for Intel Macs.
  • Its own window. YapToText does not type into its own window. A dictation started while it is in front goes to the app you were using just before, or to your clipboard when there is no such app.
  • Long dictations. There is no word cap. Auto-stop after silence and Maximum length, on the Dictation page, Recording card, are both off by default. As a safety net, one recording stops itself after 30 minutes and finishes as if you had tapped the key.
  • The Homebrew build. It cannot dictate until you download a speech model on the AI Models page.

If Apple's Dictation is the one that keeps cutting you off, why Mac dictation stops after 30 seconds explains it.

If nothing lands

  1. Paste. Press Command V. If your words are there, they went to the clipboard because Accessibility is off or the app could not be brought back to the front, and nothing was lost.
  2. Check for silence. If YapToText says “Didn't catch that,” it heard silence. Move closer to the microphone, or pick yours from the Input picker in the capybara's panel.
  3. Turn on Accessibility. System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility, YapToText on. Until it is, the backup shortcut, Control Option Space, still starts a dictation.
  4. Check the microphone permission. System Settings, Privacy & Security, Microphone, YapToText on. Without it, dictation cannot start.
  5. Look in History. Find the dictation and click Show pipeline details: the raw transcript shows what the speech model heard, and the Delivery line shows where the words went.

More fixes are in YapToText troubleshooting. If Apple's own Dictation is the one misbehaving, Mac dictation not working is the page for that.

The short version

  • Two permissions. Microphone to hear you, Accessibility to type for you.
  • One key. Click where the words go, tap Right Command, talk, tap again.
  • Three helpers. Space pauses, Esc cancels, 1 to 9 pick a mode.

Click first, then tap, talk, tap. If you are still comparing apps, speech to text on a Mac has the bigger picture. If your first dictation does not go the way this page says, open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreThis app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Sources

Questions

How do I dictate on a MacBook?

With YapToText, click where the words go, tap Right Command, talk, and tap it again. The words are typed at your cursor in any app, on any Apple silicon MacBook with macOS 14 or later.

Is YapToText a free dictation app for Mac?

Yes. There is no paid tier, no locked feature and no account. Tips are optional, and every feature works without one.

Do I need the internet to dictate with YapToText?

No. The App Store build ships both models, so it works offline from the first launch. The Homebrew build needs one speech model download first, and a model download you start is the only network use.

Why did my words go to the clipboard instead of being typed?

Accessibility is off, or YapToText could not bring the app back to the front. Turn on Accessibility in System Settings, Privacy & Security, and press Command V meanwhile: the words are already on your clipboard.

Can I cancel a dictation after it starts?

Yes. Press Esc while you talk and nothing is typed. The words are still saved to History, marked as canceled, unless you turn off Keep canceled dictations.

Is there a time limit on dictation?

No word limit and no short cutoff. Auto-stop after silence and Maximum length are off by default, and only a recording left running for 30 minutes stops itself, finishing as if you had tapped the key.