The dictation key
Hold it to talk, let go to type. Everything else about the key is on this page.
Fn, the default
Fn (the 🌐 key on Apple keyboards) starts recording the instant you press it. macOS also uses that key, so set System Settings → Keyboard → “Press 🌐 key to” → “Do Nothing”; otherwise macOS opens the emoji picker or its own dictation on the same press. MicJot's setup window and Settings → Dictation check for this and for a macOS Dictation shortcut on the same key, and name the conflict.
A Fn chord such as Fn+Delete or Fn+arrow held for less than a quarter of a second discards the recording silently, as a normal chord should; held longer, it finishes the dictation normally.
Other keys
Right Command, Right Option and Control+Option (Shift replaces Control for Command mode when your key is Control+Option) work as well. They wait about 150 milliseconds after the press before recording starts, so an ordinary shortcut on those keys (Right-Cmd+C, Ctrl+Opt+arrow) or a Cmd-click never opens the microphone. When the microphone is warm the pre-roll keeps your first words; when it is cold (after a longer pause, or on a Bluetooth headset still connecting) up to about 150 milliseconds of speech before the start can be lost on these keys. Fn has no such window.
Gestures
| Gesture | What happens |
|---|---|
| Hold, speak, release | One dictation, inserted at the cursor. |
| Double-tap, or press Space while holding | Hands-free: recording continues until you press the key again, click the stop button on the bar, or click the middle of the bar. |
| Hold Control with the key | Command mode: say an instruction. With text selected, it rewrites the selection; without one, it writes new text. Needs AI writing; without it, the words are inserted as a dictation and a notice says so. |
| Escape, or ✕ on the bar | Cancel. The rule-based text is kept in History with ⌃⌘V armed (“Not inserted. ⌃⌘V pastes it.”), or goes to the clipboard when History cannot hold it. |
| ⌃⌘P | Polish the selected text. Needs AI writing. |
| ⌃⌘V | Paste the last dictation again. The “Paste last dictation” switch in Settings → Dictation turns this off so other apps keep ⌃⌘V. |
Shortcuts use the key codes of your active keyboard layout (Dvorak, Turkish-F and others included); Settings → Dictation and Settings → Writing show the resolved keys.
When the key pauses
Password fields and some secure prompts turn on Secure Event Input, which hides all keys from every app, MicJot included. The bar and Settings say the dictation key is paused while another app holds it; it returns as soon as that field loses focus.
Dictation length
A single dictation records for up to 6 minutes by default; the limit is maxRecordingSeconds in MicJot's settings.json, with no control in Settings. Dictations longer than 30 seconds are decoded in chunks cut at pauses MicJot finds itself, never at the 30-second mark, and take about 2 to 4 seconds to appear.