PromptingOne brief, three AIs
Say the prompt you would never bother to type.
Give me 3 options each with a rough budget, and keep it friendly, not salesy.
Dictation for writers
Write the first draft out loud, full stops and all.
A scene you can hear is quicker to say than to type. Say it from the armchair, with the full stops and new paragraphs in your voice, and Dictate Safe types it into the manuscript you already write in. On the default setup, your voice never leaves your computer.
25 free dictations · one-time purchase · macOS and Windows
One chapter, one day
From 0 words to the cut.
A novelist in Toronto, his third book, and chapter 7: the one where his heroine finds a letter in her mother’s sewing box. His day is marked by how long the chapter is, not by the clock.
0 words7:10 AM · the app’s Scratchpad
The scene, talked through before a word of it exists
Shefindstheletterinthesewingbox,notthepiano.Startthere,withherhands.
She finds the letter in the sewing box, not the piano. Start there, with her hands.
Click the microphone to start, again to stop
Before a word of the chapter exists, he talks it through. He clicks the microphone on the floating icon and thinks out loud into a note, the way he would tell the scene to a friend. The chapter is still at 0 words; the plan is on his computer.
- A note in the app
- Scratchpad keeps quick notes on your computer, each titled by its first words.
- Found again
- Search your notes by any word in them.
- Nothing focused?
- Talk with no text box in front of you, and it offers to copy the words or make a note, instead of typing them somewhere blind.
- Click or key
- The microphone on the floating icon, or Fn.
1,840 words10:30 AM · the chapter
The first draft, said straight into the chapter
Theboxsmelledofcamphorfull stopnew paragraphShedidnotopenitfull stop
HomeInsertLayoutReviewView
Times New Roman 12 NormalHeading 1Title
Nobody had told her how many forms there would be, or how often she would write her mother's name on them, or how strange it would look each time in her own hand.
The funeral was on a Saturday, and by Monday the house had gone quiet in the way houses do when the last cousin has driven home.
Adaeze started with the kitchen because the kitchen was easy. Tins, a calendar from the church, a drawer of string and rubber bands. It was the sewing box that stopped her, sitting where it had always sat, under the window in her mother's room.
The box smelled of camphor.
She did not open it. She sat on the floor with the box on her knees and listened to the house, the way she had as a child, for footsteps that were not coming.
She did not open it. She sat on the floor with the box on her knees and listened to the house, the way she had as a child, for footsteps that were not coming.
Page 8 of 81,840 wordsEnglish (Canada)125%
FnDouble-tap to start, press once to stop
He double-taps Fn at the desk, sits back in the armchair and says the passage the way he hears it, full stops and new paragraphs included. When it is done he presses it once more, and it lands in the chapter with the marks where he said them.
full stop.
comma,
question mark?
exclamation mark!
new line↵
new paragraph¶
Double-tap Fn to start and press it once to stop, and talk for as long as the passage takes: it does not stop on its own. Fn is one of the keys you can choose in Settings; on Windows you pick yours there.
2,260 words2:00 PM · his vocabulary list, then the chapter
Names only he could spell
AdaezetookthenightbusfromOnitshatoherauntinEnugu.
HomeInsertLayoutReviewView
Times New Roman 12 NormalHeading 1Title
The letter was in her mother's hand, which was the first surprise. It was addressed to a man in Enugu, which was the second.
She read it standing up, then sitting down, then standing up again. By the time the light went she knew it by heart.
After a while she stopped trying to hear her mother's voice in it, and heard her own.
Adaeze took the night bus from Onitsha to her aunt in Enugu.
Page 10 of 102,260 wordsEnglish (Canada)125%
Click the microphone to start, again to stop
His names, in the app’s Vocabulary
His characters and his towns have names a speech engine would have to guess at: Adaeze, Onitsha, Enugu. He added them to his vocabulary list once, and the speech model on his computer is given the list with every dictation, so they come out spelled his way. He clicks the microphone on the floating icon and says the line off his family tree.
- Added once
- Type a name into Vocabulary, in the app. The next dictation spells it your way.
- On your computer
- On the default setup, the list goes to the speech model on your machine, and nothing leaves it.
- Any name
- Characters, towns, invented words, your own jargon.
- Counted
- Each name shows how many of your dictations it has been typed in.
2,110 words4:45 PM · the chapter
The cut: read aloud, said again, shorter
Shekepttheletterandsaidnothing.
HomeInsertLayoutReviewView
Times New Roman 12 NormalHeading 1Title
Enugu was hotter than she remembered, and louder, and her aunt was smaller.
Her aunt lived above a pharmacy, in two rooms that smelled of menthol and fried plantain.
Her aunt read the letter twice, then folded it along its old creases and gave it back without a word. For the rest of that evening and for a long time afterwards she kept the letter folded in the bottom of her bag, and in all that time she said nothing about it to anyone. She kept the letter and said nothing. On the bus home Adaeze watched the dark fields go by and did not sleep.
In the morning she went to the market for her aunt, bought the wrong tomatoes, and did not mind.
Page 9 of 92,110 wordsEnglish (Canada)125%
HoldFnwhile you talk
Reading a page aloud is how he finds the sentence that drags. He selects it, holds Fn and says it again, shorter, and the new one takes its place. The chapter is 28 words lighter.
- Select, then say it
- What you say replaces the selection, the way typing would.
- Hold or double-tap
- Hold Fn for a line and let go, or double-tap it for a page and press it once to stop.
- Kept in History
- Every dictation is saved on your computer, so a sentence you said and later cut can be found again.
- Your words
- Filler sounds like um go. Nothing is reworded.
One thing to know first
It understands English, and only English.
The speech models are English-only, which makes them more accurate at English than multilingual models of the same size. Names from any language can go in your vocabulary list, but a passage written in another language will not come out right.
Where your words go
What you say stays on your computer.
Your voice
Never leaves your computer, on the default setup. The speech is turned into text on the machine, and you need no account to dictate.
History
Every dictation is kept on your computer, searchable, so a lost paragraph can be found again. Delete one and its text and recording are erased, with the space they used overwritten.
If you choose
With your own cloud key, your recording is sent to the speech provider you chose instead. The app shows which mode it is in at all times, and Offline Lock stops every connection it makes.
Measured, not promised
Our own numbers, from a 2018 laptop.
1.2 to 1.7 secondsFrom letting go of the key to text, for a dictation of up to about 70 words, roughly half a minute of speech.
186 wordsA whole passage, a minute and a half of speech, came back in 5.8 seconds.
23 words a secondHow fast speech turns into text, on the computer.
Measured on a 2018 Intel MacBook Pro, everything on the computer, with AI cleanup switched off. If yours is an M-series Mac or a recent PC, it is doing less work than ours was.
Questions people ask first
Does it work in the app I write in?
If it has a text cursor, yes. Dictate Safe types wherever the cursor is, so the chapter stays in the word processor or writing app you already use. Nothing is installed inside it.
Which punctuation can I say?
Full stop, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, new line and new paragraph, and the marks go where you said them. Most commas and full stops arrive on their own from the way you speak; say them when you want to be sure.
Can I talk for a long time?
Yes. Double-tap Fn to start and press it once to stop, and talk for as long as the passage takes: it does not stop on its own unless you set a limit in Settings. Or hold Fn for a single line and let go. Fn is one of the keys you can choose in Settings; on Windows you pick yours there.
Will it spell my characters’ names right?
Add them to your vocabulary list, once. The speech model is given the list with every dictation, so invented names and real places come out spelled your way.
Will it change my sentences?
No. It takes out filler sounds like um and uh, and never rewords a sentence. AI cleanup, if you switch it on, only sorts out a change of mind and fixes names from your vocabulary list; it never shortens or improves what you said.
Is my book uploaded anywhere?
Not by us. On the default setup your voice is turned into text on your computer, and nothing is sent anywhere. If you add a cloud speech provider with your own key, your recordings go to that provider instead, and the app says so. The manuscript stays wherever you keep it: the app only types into it.
Which languages does it understand?
English only. The speech models are English-only, which makes them more accurate at English than multilingual models of the same size. Names from any language can go in your vocabulary list, but a passage in another language will not come out right.
What does it cost?
One payment for a lifetime license that covers 2 computers, with updates and fixes to the features sold included, while we offer the app. Try 25 dictations first, with no card and no account.
8:15 PM2,110 words, and the laptop shut
Try the part that matters first.
Twenty five dictations, no card and no account. It is the same app you would buy, running the same way it will on day thirty.
One time · 2 devices · 30 day refund
More stories
A different day, the same app.
Hands-freeThree Sundays, one bookFor hands with better things to do.
If they look like that, they are for the dog. Start again.
