The floating dictation panel: your voice as a wave, your words as they form
By Ryleigh Newman · Published · Updated
The floating panel is the small window YapToText shows while you dictate on a Mac: your voice as a wave, your words as they form, and buttons to pause, stop or cancel. Its settings live on the Dictation page, in the Pop-up card and the Pop-up colors card, with a live preview that follows every change. It lets you watch the words before they land, and you can shrink it to a sliver or turn it off when it would only pull your eye.
This 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: 10 sections
Pick a layout
The Layout menu in the Pop-up card has three choices:
- Expanded (live transcript), the default. The wave, your words as they form, the buttons and numbered mode chips.
- Compact (one row). The wave and the buttons, without the live words.
- Mini (just the waveform). A short pill. Hover over it while you talk for cancel, pause, stop and a button that makes it bigger.
A button on the panel itself steps through the three while you talk, from Expanded to Compact to Mini and back. The three layouts are the sizes: there is no separate size setting. The live words come from Live transcription preview in Settings, Advanced, Text output, which is on by default and costs extra battery with Whisper models. The Energy guide has the other battery settings.
Put it where you want it
Four controls in the Pop-up card decide where the panel appears.
- Position. Bottom center (the default), Center of screen, Top center or Near menu bar. Show pop-up previews it.
- Drag. Drag the panel anywhere and it stays there, across dictations and launches.
- Snap back to this position. Off by default. Turn it on and the panel returns to the chosen position for every dictation, even after you drag it.
- Reset position. Appears after you drag the panel, and forgets the drag.
Drag it once and it remembers. Since 1.5.3 the panel can be dragged again on macOS 27.
Read the wave and the ring
The wave follows your actual voice and rises the moment you speak. A flat wave while you talk means the microphone is not reaching the app. In the Expanded layout your words form underneath it. The line says Listening until the first ones arrive, and Paused while you are paused.
When you stop, the words and buttons fade and the wave winds into a spinning ring while your Mac works: the speech model finishes the transcript, the cleanup model runs if your mode uses one, and then the text lands and the panel closes. The ring shows the status, and VoiceOver says Transcribing and Cleaning up as each stage starts. To see afterward what happened to a dictation, open it in History and click Show pipeline details.
A dictation longer than 4 minutes is cut at quiet moments into pieces of about 2 minutes, which are transcribed as they finish, so a long one does not leave you on the ring for its whole length. If YapToText says “Didn't catch that,” it heard silence and nothing was transcribed.
Use the buttons or the keys
The buttons on the expanded panel, from left to right:
- Cancel. The same as Esc. Nothing is typed, and by default the words are saved to History, marked as canceled. It sits away from the stop button so a hurried click does not throw a dictation away.
- Pause. The same as Space. Press it again to resume.
- Stop and insert. The same as tapping the dictation key again. Your words are typed at the cursor.
- Mode chips. In the Expanded layout, click a chip or press its number to switch the mode for this dictation.
- Open in YapToText. The arrow button opens the current mode's editor in the app.
Cancel, pause, stop and the mode chips all have keys, so you never have to aim a mouse at them. Clicking the panel does not take the focus from the app you are dictating into, and every control carries a label for VoiceOver. The full key list is in YapToText's keys.
Color it
The Pop-up colors card sets two colors of its own, apart from the app accent color in Settings, General, Appearance:
- Pop-up background color. None, Match accent (the default), Custom color or RGB, with a Strength slider and, for RGB, a speed slider.
- Pop-up waveform color. Match accent (the default), Custom color or RGB, with Strength and, for RGB, speed and spread sliders.
The panel and its wave can each have their own color. The Quick Edit card has separate colors on the Quick Edit page, purple out of the box, so the two never look alike.
Turn it off
Turn off Show the floating recording panel in the Pop-up card, and nothing appears while you talk. Dictation works exactly the same with the panel off.
The capybara in the menu bar still keeps you posted: his speech bubble turns red while recording, spins while transcribing and flashes green when the text lands. As the in-app Help puts it, “He also blinks. He is alive.” VoiceOver still announces every state, with or without the panel. The accessibility guide covers that side, and the menu bar guide covers the capybara.
Limits
- No size control. The three layouts are the only sizes.
- Live words. Live transcription preview costs extra battery with Whisper models. Turning it off saves that, and the live words go with it.
- One panel, one set of settings. Position and colors here apply to the dictation panel only. The Quick Edit card has its own.
- macOS 27. Dragging on macOS 27 needs version 1.5.3.
If something is off
- Check the switch. On the Dictation page, Pop-up card, Show the floating recording panel must be on. Then Show pop-up previews the panel where it will appear.
- Reset the position. If the panel opens somewhere odd, press Reset position, or turn on Snap back to this position.
- Bring the words back. If no words form while you talk, pick the Expanded layout and check Live transcription preview in Settings, Advanced, Text output.
- Fix a flat wave. Pick your microphone in the Input picker in the capybara's panel, or in Settings, General, Microphone, and watch the meter while you talk.
- Raise a quiet voice. If it heard silence, move closer, or raise Input boost in the same Microphone card until normal speech reaches the green-to-yellow zone.
More fixes are in YapToText troubleshooting.
The short version
- Three layouts. Expanded shows your words, Compact is one row, Mini is just the wave.
- Your position. Drag it once and it stays, or turn on Snap back to this position.
- One switch. Turn it off and dictation works the same, with the capybara keeping watch.
Pick the layout that tells you enough and pulls your eye the least. If the panel does something this page does not describe, open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.
This 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.
Related
Questions
Can I turn off the YapToText floating panel?
Yes. Turn off Show the floating recording panel on the Dictation page, in the Pop-up card. Dictation works the same, and the capybara in the menu bar still shows when it is recording.
How do I move the dictation panel?
Drag it. It stays where you leave it, across dictations and launches, unless Snap back to this position is on. Reset position forgets the drag.
Can I make the dictation panel smaller?
Yes. Pick Compact for one row or Mini for just the wave, on the Dictation page or with the layout button on the panel. There is no separate size setting.
Why did the panel turn into a spinning ring?
Your Mac is working on the words: the speech model is finishing, then the cleanup model runs if your mode uses one. The text lands when the ring is done.
Why does the wave stay flat when I talk?
The microphone is not reaching the app. Pick your microphone in the Input picker in the menu bar panel or in Settings, General, Microphone, and check the meter there.