What do the floating icon and the menu bar icon do?
Click the floating icon to dictate, hover for Add task, Prompts and the other buttons, or drag it; the menu bar icon has the rest, without opening the window.
The floating icon is Dictate Safe when the window is closed. Click it to start a dictation and click again to stop. Hover it and a strip of buttons opens above it. Drag it anywhere on the screen, and it stays there next time.
#The buttons on the strip
- Dictate. Start a dictation, and click again to stop. This is the floating icon itself, so it always stays.
- Add task. Opens a small box above the icon where you type or dictate a task. It shows while Tasks is on. See how to add a task from the floating icon.
- Ask the Assistant. Opens a small chat card above the icon. It shows while the Assistant is switched on. See how to ask the Assistant from the floating icon.
- Scratchpad. Opens the Scratchpad page, where your notes are. See how to dictate a quick note.
- Prompts. Opens the prompt palette over whatever you are working in. See how to find a prompt and drop it into an AI tool.
- Keep awake. Keeps the computer awake for the length you last chose, and counts down on the strip while it runs. See Keep Awake.
#Choose which buttons it shows
- Open Settings → Floating icon.
- Switch off the buttons you do not use.
- Use the up and down arrows to put the rest in the order you like.
The preview at the top of that page changes as you go, and so does the real floating icon on your screen. To undo everything, press Put them back the way they were.
Every button you switch off makes the floating icon’s window narrower, and hands that part of the screen back to whatever is behind it.
#The menu bar icon
On a Mac it sits in the menu bar at the top of the screen; on Windows, in the notification area at the end of the taskbar. Its menu has:
- Open Dictate Safe, for the main window.
- Ask the Assistant..., while the Assistant is switched on.
- Copy Last Transcript, for your most recent dictation.
- Keep awake, to start one at any length, add an hour, or turn it off, with the time left shown in the menu itself.
- Code Mode, to switch it on or off.
- Microphone, to choose which one records.
- Offline Lock, to stop the app connecting to anything.
- Add a task... and Today’s tasks, with a line under them naming the next task, while Tasks is on.
- Quit Dictate Safe.
The whole of the floating icon’s window takes clicks, not only the icon, which is why a button you do not use is worth switching off. The Dictate button cannot be switched off, because it is the icon.