Adjusting your hotkeys

Overview

Hotkeys let you trigger Epilude's voice workflows without switching apps. You can customize them to fit your workflow. Actions also offers a click-to-open selection panel that does not require a voice hotkey.

To change a hotkey, open Epilude → Settings → Hotkeys. Choose Dictation, Features, or Proofreader, then choose the command in that group. Click its edit button and press the key combination or mouse button you want to use. You can add another hotkey without removing the first one.

Types of hotkeys

Epilude supports keyboard and mouse hotkeys:

Modifier + Key (most common)

Hold one or more modifier keys, then press a letter, number, or symbol key.

Single Modifier

Press and release a single modifier key on its own. Left and right sides are treated separately, so you can use one side for Epilude without affecting normal typing.

Available modifier keys: ⌘ Command, ⌥ Option, ⌃ Control, ⇧ Shift, and fn (the 🌐 Globe key).

If pressing fn also opens the emoji picker or switches your input source, open System Settings → Keyboard and set Press 🌐 key to to Do Nothing.

Caps Lock also works on its own. Hold it for a moment while recording it, so a quick tap can't set it by accident.

Hotkeys follow the key's position on your keyboard, and Epilude names each key the way your keyboard layout does. On a French or German keyboard, for example, the labels show the letters printed on your keys.

Extra mouse button

Press the middle button (click the scroll wheel) or an extra button on your mouse while the hotkey recorder is open. Epilude shows Middle Click or a label such as Mouse 6. Left and right click cannot be used.

A mouse button can trigger any feature listed in Settings → Hotkeys, including Dictation, Hands-free, Actions, Narrator, Notetaker, Vocabulary, and Proofreader. To use one for Actions, open Settings → Hotkeys → Actions and record that button there. Hold a mouse button assigned to Dictation to speak, then release it to insert your text. Press a button assigned to Hands-free once to start and again to stop.

The number names the button event macOS receives, not a label printed on the mouse. A Mouse 6 hotkey works with any connected mouse that sends Mouse 6.

If a button does not appear in the recorder, keep Epilude's Hotkeys window active and click the button while the recorder says it is waiting. Check the assignment in your mouse's settings software. An MX Master 3S thumb gesture button can send a standard extra-button event, but its Options+ assignment may also trigger another action. If the button still is not detected, assign it a spare keyboard shortcut in Options+, then record that shortcut in Epilude. Use an Options+ assignment that applies to every app if you want the hotkey to work everywhere.

If the recorder closes when you press a mouse button, click Edit again and keep the Epilude window active until it saves. If a previously saved mouse hotkey does not fire in other apps, check Settings → Permissions for Accessibility and Input Monitoring access, and check for a conflicting Options+ assignment.

What's not allowed

Not every key combination can be used as a hotkey:

• Plain keys without a modifier (e.g. just D, or a function key like F5): these would conflict with normal typing. Epilude asks you to add ⌘, ⌥, ⌃ or ⇧.
• Common system shortcuts like ⌘C (Copy), ⌘V (Paste), ⌘Q (Quit), ⌘⇧3 (Screenshot), etc.
• Hotkeys already assigned to another Epilude command
• Left and right mouse clicks: these remain available for normal clicking

Tips for picking a good hotkey

• Use 2–3 modifiers + a key (e.g. ⌘⌥ E) to avoid conflicts with other apps
• Right ⌘ or Right ⌥ work great for push-to-talk since they're rarely used by other apps and easy to hold with one hand
• Pick something comfortable: you'll be holding the dictation hotkey while speaking, so choose a key you can press without straining
• Test for conflicts: after setting a hotkey, try using it in the apps you use most to make sure it doesn't clash

Push-to-talk vs toggle

Epilude's dictation hotkey uses a push-to-talk model:

1. Press and hold the hotkey, and Epilude starts listening
2. Speak your text
3. Release the hotkey, and Epilude processes and inserts the text

Default hotkeys

You can change any of these in Settings → Hotkeys.

Narrator playback shortcuts

Narrator has six playback shortcuts: Play or pause, Previous sentence, Next sentence, Slower, Faster, and Focus the player. None is set until you set it. Open Settings → Hotkeys, choose Features, then Playback, and choose Set shortcut on a row to use the suggested ⌃⌥ combination, or record any other. Control Narrator from the keyboard explains what each one does.

Narrate selection (⌥⌘N by default) also sets ⌥⇧⌘N, its keys with ⇧, which adds the selected text to Up Next instead of reading it now. It works in every app and changes when you change Narrate selection, and no other Epilude command can use it. Add a selection to Up Next explains it.