Tools during recording

While you're dictating (especially in hands-free lock), you can attach things to the same recording. Everything you attach becomes part of the transcription's context and history.

Region screenshot

⇧⌘4 — grab a region of the screen. The screenshot animates into the overlay and attaches to the current recording.

Draw on screen

Hold ⌥⌘ to turn the screen into a canvas. Sketch arrows or annotations anywhere, release to capture. The drawing is saved as an image attachment.

Circle gesture screenshot

Rough-circle something on screen with your mouse three times and Dictato grabs the region automatically. No shortcut, no modifier keys — just spin the cursor.

• First two loops arm the gesture
• Third loop captures the circled area as a screenshot
• Move away from the circled area (or press Escape) to cancel

Toggle in Settings → Transcription → Circle gesture screenshots.

Text quotes

Select text anywhere on your screen, then press ⌥T to attach it as a quoted snippet. Handy when you want to say "rewrite this paragraph" without re-typing or switching windows.

Drag and drop

Drag anything onto the Dictato overlay to attach it:

• Files — added as file attachments
• Images — added as image attachments
• URLs — added as links
• Text — added as a text snippet
• Colors — attached as a color swatch

Exiting a tool

Press Escape to exit the active tool without stopping the recording.

Shortcut reference