YapToText's keys: the speech to text shortcut, and how to change it
By Ryleigh Newman · Published · Updated
YapToText's speech to text shortcut is one key, Right Command: tap it to start, talk, and tap it again to stop, or set it to Hold to talk and it records only while you hold it. While a dictation runs, Space pauses, Esc cancels and 1 to 9 pick a mode, and the Quick Edit key, Right Option, rewrites selected text by voice.
The dictation key and how it responds live on the Dictation page, in the Keys card, and on the Home page. Everything else is in Settings, General, Shortcuts. My hands make typing difficult, so every key here can be changed, down to a single letter or a pedal that presses one. If you are after the shortcut for Apple's own Dictation, the Mac dictation shortcut guide covers it.
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: 12 sections
Steps
- On the Dictation page, in the Keys card, click the key field next to Dictation key.
- Press the key you want to use.
- In the menu beside it, pick Tap to start / stop or Hold to talk.
- Click into another app and tap the new key to test it.
Every key at a glance
Space, Esc and the number keys are captured only while a dictation is running, so they type normally the rest of the time.
| Key | What it does | Where to change it |
|---|---|---|
| Right Command | Starts and stops a dictation, from any app | Dictation page, Keys card |
| Control Option Space | The backup shortcut: the same job, and it works without Accessibility | Settings, General, Shortcuts |
| Right Option | Quick Edit: select text, tap, say the change, tap again | Quick Edit page, Key card |
| Space | Pauses and resumes while you dictate | Settings, General, Shortcuts, Pause / resume |
| Esc | Cancels while you dictate; the words still go to History | Settings, General, Shortcuts, and the Dictation page |
| 1 to 9 | Picks a mode while you dictate | Settings, General, Shortcuts, Number keys switch modes |
| Not set | Redo last dictation, Cycle mode, Paste recent dictation | Settings, General, Shortcuts |
One key starts and stops everything. Every other key is optional.
Change the dictation key
Pick a key you never type with, because a plain key that becomes the trigger stops typing its character everywhere. The dictation key can be almost any single key on the keyboard.
Step 1: Record the new key
- You: On the Dictation page, in the Keys card, click the key field next to Dictation key, then press the key you want.
- YapToText: The field says Tap a key and waits about 10 seconds for a press. It accepts any of the modifiers listed below, or any ordinary key, such as a letter, an F-key or a number pad key.
- Check: The field shows the new key's name. If you pressed Left Command or Left Shift, it asks you to try the right-side keys, Fn, or Caps Lock instead.
Step 2: Test it in another app
- You: Click into a text field in another app and tap the new key.
- YapToText: Starts a dictation, as long as Accessibility is on.
- Check: The floating panel appears. If the key field turned red, the same key is also the Quick Edit key, and whichever fires first wins.
The choices are Right Command (the default), Right Control, Left Control, Fn (Globe), Right Option, Left Option, Right Shift, Caps Lock, or any other single key. With Caps Lock, YapToText turns the lock and its light back off after each press. A modifier only counts as a tap when you press nothing else with it, so Command C and Command Tab never start a dictation. Right-click the field for Turn Off or Record New Key. The Home page has the same field in its Keys card.
If a switch, a pedal or another device presses one key for you, that key can be the trigger. Dictation from one key, a switch or a pedal goes through the setup. I have not tested every switch interface.
Tap to start and stop, or hold to talk
The menu beside the key field sets how the key responds:
- Tap to start / stop (default). One tap starts, the next tap stops, and your words are typed at the cursor.
- Hold to talk. Recording runs while the key is down and ends the moment you let go, even if the dictation was still starting.
- Off. The key does nothing. The backup shortcut and Start Dictation in the menu bar still work.
Tap is the default for both the dictation key and the Quick Edit key because it is easier on hands that cannot hold a key down. Caps Lock has no held state, so on Caps Lock, Hold to talk works as tap to start and stop. Tap if holding a key tires you. Hold if you like a walkie-talkie. For a setup built around not holding keys, dictation for carpal tunnel on a Mac goes further.
Use the backup shortcut
The backup shortcut is a key combination, Control Option Space by default, in Settings, General, Shortcuts. It starts and stops a dictation from any app, and unlike the bare dictation key, it works without Accessibility. Without Accessibility, though, the words go to your clipboard instead of being typed. If Right Command does nothing yet, the backup shortcut still works.
- Backup behavior. Toggle (press to start, press to stop), the default, or Push-to-talk (hold to record).
- A taken combination. If another app already uses it, the card says so. Click the field and record a different combination.
- The setup screen. Choosing Use a custom shortcut instead of Right Command during setup makes your combination the dictation shortcut and turns the dictation key off.
Pause, stop, and cancel
Each of these works from the keyboard or from the panel's buttons.
- Pause. Space pauses and resumes, and the space is never typed into your document. The Pause / resume field adds a shortcut of your own, and Space keeps working beside it.
- Stop. Tap the dictation key again, click the stop button on the panel, or the stop button in the capybara's panel. Your words are typed at the cursor.
- Cancel. One press of Esc cancels at once and nothing is typed. The words are still transcribed and saved to History, marked as canceled, unless you turn off Keep canceled dictations in Settings, Advanced, History & audio.
Canceling stops the typing, not the saving. Two settings change how Esc behaves, and one rule always holds:
- Require pressing Escape twice to cancel. On the Dictation page, Keys card, off by default. When it is on, the first press only arms the cancel, the panel says Press Esc again to cancel, which VoiceOver reads out, and a second press within 0.6 seconds cancels.
- Esc cancels dictation. In Settings, General, Shortcuts, on by default. Turn it off and Esc no longer cancels while you talk.
- After you stop. While the app is still transcribing or cleaning up, Esc can cancel that run whatever the switch says, so a stuck run never traps you. A run canceled at that stage is not saved. A tap of the dictation key at that stage is ignored, so a stray press cannot throw the result away.
Esc is captured only while a dictation is in progress, so it works normally in other apps the rest of the time. The History guide covers where canceled dictations go.
Number keys pick the mode
While you dictate, the number keys 1 to 9 pick the mode your words come out in. The numbers follow the order of your Modes list, and with Auto mode on, Auto is number 1. Out of the box that makes 1 Auto, 2 Raw Transcription, 3 Clean Up, 4 Note, 5 Email, 6 Message and 7 Code Comment, and the chips on the expanded panel show the same numbers.
- With Auto mode on. 2 to 9 pick a mode for this one dictation, and pressing 1 brings Auto back. The next dictation uses Auto again.
- With Auto mode off. The number you press becomes your selected mode, and it stays selected.
- With a modifier. Command 1 and other modified numbers pass through to the app as usual.
- Hidden modes. A mode with Show in the quick switcher turned off in its editor gets no number.
If you type numbers while you dictate, turn off Number keys switch modes in Settings, General, Shortcuts, and the keys type normally. The Space pause rides on the same key watcher, so it goes off too. Set a Pause / resume shortcut if you still want one. Only the number row above the letters picks modes, not the number pad. The modes guide explains what each mode does.
More keys you can set
- Quick Edit key. Right Option, tap to start and stop by default, or Hold to talk, or off, on the Quick Edit page or the Home page. Esc cancels an edit while it is being applied, and the Quick Edit guide has the rest.
- Redo last dictation. Runs your last dictation through AI cleanup again, in its own mode when that mode uses AI, and swaps the fresh result in for the words it typed. If that dictation is more than five minutes old or longer than 600 characters, the result goes to your clipboard instead. Not set until you record one.
- Cycle mode. Steps to the next mode in your list. Not set.
- Paste recent dictation. Opens Insert Recent Dictation, a list of your last nine dictations. Pick one and it is typed at your cursor. Not set.
- A shortcut per mode. In a mode's editor, under Basics, an Activation shortcut starts a dictation in that mode from anywhere. Press it again to stop.
- Return after the words land. In Settings, Advanced, Text output, under After a dictation lands, pick Press Return or Press Command Return for an app, so a dictated message goes out on its own.
To record any of these, click its field and press the keys. Right-click a field to clear it or reset it.
Limits
- Accessibility. The dictation key, the Quick Edit key, Space and the number keys all need it. The backup shortcut does not.
- Left Command and Left Shift. Neither can be the trigger.
- Bare keys. A letter, an F-key or a number pad key used as the trigger stops typing in every app.
- The second Esc. With Require pressing Escape twice to cancel on, the second press must come within 0.6 seconds, and no setting changes that.
- Switches and pedals. Anything that presses one key can be the trigger, but I have not tested every switch interface.
If a key does nothing
- Check the menu. On the Dictation page, Keys card, the menu beside the key must say Tap to start / stop or Hold to talk, not Off.
- Check Accessibility. On the Home page, the Get set up card appears while it is missing. Press Grant, switch YapToText on, then press Recheck to re-arm the shortcuts. The backup shortcut works meanwhile.
- Look for red. A red key field means the dictation key and the Quick Edit key are the same key. Pick a different key for one of them.
- Free up the combination. If Settings says the backup shortcut is already in use by another app, record a different one.
- Send diagnostics. Settings, About, Copy Diagnostics gathers your Mac model, versions and latency stats, never your words, for a GitHub issue.
For anything else that goes wrong, YapToText troubleshooting goes symptom by symptom.
The short version
- Right Command. Tap to start and stop, or set Hold to talk.
- While you talk. Space pauses, Esc cancels, 1 to 9 pick a mode.
- Any key. Change it in the Keys card. The backup shortcut works without Accessibility.
Pick one key you never type with, and that key is all you need. If a key behaves differently from this page, tell me on GitHub. Every issue 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
Is there push to talk dictation on a Mac?
Yes. In YapToText, set the dictation key to Hold to talk on the Dictation page, and Right Command records only while you hold it. The backup shortcut has its own Push-to-talk choice in Settings, General, Shortcuts.
How do I change the speech to text shortcut in YapToText?
On the Dictation page, in the Keys card, click the key field and press the key you want. Right Option, Fn, Caps Lock and almost any single key work, but Left Command and Left Shift do not.
Why does Right Command do nothing?
The dictation key needs the Accessibility permission. Grant it from the Home page and press Recheck. Until then the backup shortcut, Control Option Space, works without it.
Will Space or the number keys get in the way of my typing?
No. They are captured only while a dictation is running. If you type numbers while dictating, turn off Number keys switch modes, which turns off the Space pause too.
Does Esc delete my dictation?
No, not while you talk: nothing is typed, and the words are saved to History, marked as canceled. Esc after you stop, while the app is still transcribing or cleaning up, is ignored, so a stray press cannot throw the result away.
Can YapToText press Return after it types my words?
Yes. In Settings, Advanced, Text output, add the app under After a dictation lands and choose Press Return or Press Command Return.