Shortcuts and hands-free dictation
Choose how dictation starts, stops, cancels, and pastes on Mac.
Open Monologue → Settings → Dictation to configure shortcuts that work with your keyboard and other apps.
Push to talk
Hold a push-to-talk shortcut while speaking, then release it to finish. The default is the right-side Option key. You can add another binding or record a different modifier, key combination, function key, or supported mouse button.
Monologue distinguishes the left and right versions of modifier keys. If you assign right Option, pressing left Option should keep its normal behavior.
Hands-free dictation
Tap a hands-free shortcut once to start recording, then tap it again to finish. Hands-free bindings are configured separately from push to talk and can use keyboard shortcuts or supported mouse buttons.
Other useful shortcuts
- Cancel dictation: Stops the active recording without inserting a result.
- Mode picker: While dictating, tap right Shift to choose Default, Blazing Fast, or one of your modes.
- Paste last transcript: Inserts the most recent result again while preserving what was already on your clipboard.
- Voice Notes shortcuts: Start, pause, resume, or stop a longer note recording from the Notes settings.
Avoid shortcut conflicts
If another app already uses your shortcut, only one app may receive it. Right Option can conflict with AI apps such as Claude, keyboard remappers, and layouts that use Option to type special characters.
Change either the other app’s shortcut or Monologue’s binding under Settings → Dictation. A multi-key combination or unused mouse button is usually a safer alternative. If one side of a modifier is needed by your keyboard layout, assign the other side or a different combination.
After changing a shortcut, test push to talk and hands-free dictation separately in a plain text field such as TextEdit or Notes.