Quickstart

Install, five short setup stages, then hold a key and talk.

1. Install

Open the disk image, drag MicJot to Applications, and open it. The download page says what to expect on first launch. MicJot lives in the menu bar and the Dock; its main window opens on Home, which lists every transcript with search.

2. Setup: Sign in › Permissions › Your key › Try it › Ready

The setup window has five stages, one screen each; the progress bar at the top names them, and a done stage can be revisited. The speech model (Whisper Large v3 Turbo, about 630 MB) downloads in the background from the first screen on, so you are dictating before it finishes.

1. Sign in. In a build with no account service, such as MicJot 0.3.1, this screen says “No account needed here” and “This build has no account service. Dictation works without one.”, with Continue. The speech model starts downloading in the background (about 630 MB) the moment you continue; from the next screen on, a slim strip shows the download: bytes and time left, “ready”, “paused: offline” or the failure with Retry.

2. Permissions. Two cards, one line each: Microphone (MicJot listens only while you hold your key or lock hands-free) and Accessibility (it types the text into the app you are using, as if you typed it). Each button opens the macOS prompt, a drawing shows where to click, and the page updates by itself when macOS says yes. Continue needs both. Input Monitoring is not asked for here: MicJot asks for it only if it cannot see the Fn key, on the next screen. MicJot observes keyboard events system-wide and acts only on its own keys; it records nothing. The permissions page has the exact System Settings paths.

3. Your key. Pick the Globe key (fn, the default), Right Option, Right Command or Control + Option, then press and hold it: on a real press the key lights up and a chip reads “Detected · held 1.2 s” (the hold's own length). If MicJot cannot see the key yet, the screen says so and offers Allow Input Monitoring. If you keep Fn, set System Settings → Keyboard → “Press 🌐 key to” → “Do Nothing”, so macOS does not open its own emoji picker or dictation; the screen names any conflict it finds. You can continue without a detected press and check later in Settings → Dictation, which has the same keys, a live check and a way to record your own key. See the dictation key.

4. Try it. One short practice: hold your key, read the messy line on the screen out loud (“so um can we move the sync to three, no, actually four”), let go, and only what you meant lands in a practice note that is never saved; your speaking speed appears beside it. If the speech model is not ready yet, the screen says MicJot is still getting ready; try again in a moment. “Skip practice” moves on.

5. Ready. Your speaking speed from the practice next to a typing speed (typical figures, labelled as such, if you skipped), then the Free and Pro cards under a Monthly / Annual toggle: the published public-release plans, shown for information, with the line “This build has no account service, so no plan applies on this Mac.” Finish closes setup. “Open MicJot at login” is on by default, so the model is ready before your first dictation of the day.

Finish opens Home: your dictation key as a keycap, a compact row of statistics, and every transcript in one searchable list grouped by day, with Copy on each row and Insert again in its “…” menu. MicJot also lives in the menu bar and the Dock. The first dictation after an install waits about a minute while Core ML compiles the model for the Neural Engine; after that, about one to two seconds. The AI step is optional and described on AI writing. Everything else you can change lives in Settings, in the tabs General · Dictation · Writing · Privacy · Account (Account only in builds with an account service); your writing styles are on the main window's Style page.

Daily use

If text does not appear

It is on your clipboard, and a notice said so: press ⌘V. Every dictation is kept somewhere; the troubleshooting page goes through each case.