# Your first dictation in 60 seconds. Dimmy Help.

> Your first dictation in 60 seconds. Step-by-step help for Dimmy, the native voice dictation app for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Source: https://dimmy.app/help/first-dictation/

[← Back to Help center](https://dimmy.app/help/)

Getting Started

# Your first dictation in 60 seconds

Open any app with a text field, press the hotkey, say a sentence, release. The text lands where the cursor was.

tip

Make sure your cursor is blinking somewhere. Dimmy pastes wherever the OS thinks you are typing.

video · placeholder

60-second walkthrough of opening a note, holding the hotkey, speaking, releasing

## Onboarding, step by step

On first launch Dimmy runs a short wizard: welcome, pick a model, set your shortcut, try it. Here is what each step asks for.

Step 1 of 4 · Welcome

## Pick a model

Choose where transcription runs. Both platforms now show two cards: Local and Cloud (Groq).

* Local: private, offline, runs on your machine. Pick a model from the dropdown (Parakeet, around 466 MB, or a Whisper size), then download it. You see a live progress bar with a percent while it downloads. If it fails you get a Download failed message with the reason and a Try again button. The Parakeet bundle resumes a partial download instead of starting over on both platforms; Whisper sizes also resume on Windows, but on macOS a Whisper retry re-downloads from scratch.
* Cloud (Groq): fastest and most accurate. Paste a Groq key in the gsk\_... field. Dimmy validates it on the spot: Validating…, then Ready to use, or the error if the key is rejected. No key yet? Use the Get API key link, which opens console.groq.com/keys.

info

Cloud (Groq) in onboarding is now on macOS too, matching Windows. Either platform can finish setup with a local model, a Groq key, or both.

## Set your shortcut

Pick the keys you dictate with. The step starts from the shortcut Dimmy is already using, so if you re-run setup it shows your real combo, not a default.

* Windows: a free capture box. Click it, then press and hold the combo you want. Dimmy records exactly those keys, Windows key included. Choose Push-to-Talk or Toggle below. The combo you set is applied to the live hotkey before the Try it step, so the keys you just chose are the keys that fire.
* Mac: the default is the fn key. The step offers presets fn, Control+Option, and Control+Shift, plus a Custom recorder. You can change it later in Settings under Shortcut.

## Try it

Dimmy shows the pill and arms your shortcut so you can test recording right inside the wizard before you finish.

## The 3 steps

1. Click into any text field. A note, a browser tab, a chat box, a code editor.
2. Press your hotkey. On Mac that's the fn key by default, on Windows and Linux it's Win + Alt. Speak naturally.
3. Release the hotkey. The pill goes through transcribe → enhance → done, and the text appears where your cursor was.

## Watch the pill

The pill in the corner of your screen tells you what is happening. Idle when waiting, rainbow border with a live waveform while recording, dots while transcribing, a coloured border during AI enhancement, a green check when text was pasted.

Pill states: idle, recording, transcribing, done

## If nothing pastes

* Make sure a text field was focused before you pressed the hotkey.
* On macOS, grant accessibility permission (System Settings → Privacy → Accessibility → Dimmy).
* If the cursor moved away while you were speaking, the text still lands in the clipboard. Cmd/Ctrl + V to paste it manually.

## Redo the setup

Want to run the wizard again? Open Settings, go to the About page, find Run setup again and click Open setup. The wizard reopens and is idempotent: a model you already downloaded and a key you already saved are detected and kept, so nothing is re-downloaded and you are not asked for a key twice. Same on Windows and Mac.

info

Try the [toggle mode](https://dimmy.app/help/hotkey-modes/) if hold-to-record feels awkward: press once to start, press again to stop.

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## In this category

[ Getting StartedInstall Dimmy on Mac, Windows, or LinuxDownload the installer for your operating system, run it, launch Dimmy. Takes around a minute.](https://dimmy.app/help/install/) [ Getting StartedPermissions Dimmy needsMicrophone everywhere. Accessibility on macOS to type into other apps. Nothing else, ever.](https://dimmy.app/help/permissions/)

Last updated: 2026-05-22

On this page

1. [01 Onboarding, step by step](#onboarding-step-by-step)
2. [02 Pick a model](#pick-a-model)
3. [03 Set your shortcut](#set-your-shortcut)
4. [04 Try it](#try-it)
5. [05 The 3 steps](#the-3-steps)
6. [06 Watch the pill](#watch-the-pill)
7. [07 If nothing pastes](#if-nothing-pastes)
8. [08 Redo the setup](#redo-the-setup)