Keyboard shortcuts

Assign shortcuts for Toggle recording, Hold to talk, and Show Freehand under Settings → Shortcuts. All three actions are optional.

1. Choose the shortcut field and press the combination you want to use. Press Escape to cancel capture.
2. Check the capture result and choose Save. To disable an action, choose Clear and save; an empty toggle does not restore the default.
3. Focus a destination text field and try your recording shortcut. This lets Freehand capture the intended destination when recording begins.

You can use Voice without a global shortcut

Finish setup and record with the on-screen controls, then review and explicitly copy the result. For insertion into another app, start with a working shortcut while that destination is focused.

Tray quick view

Click the tray or menu-bar icon to see dictation status, your shortcut, selected Voice connection, and latest transcript.

Action	Result
Copy	Explicitly copies the latest transcript
Voice settings	Opens configuration in the main window
Open Freehand	Opens the workspace
Cancel recording / Cancel dictation	Discards the active recording or processing operation
Close quick view	Leaves active work running
Right-click tray icon → Quit Freehand	Quits through the native menu

To record into another app, close quick view, focus the destination, and use your shortcut. Quick view does not start or stop recordings.

Windows

Action	Required	Accepted forms	Default
Toggle recording	No	One or more modifiers plus a supported primary key; or F13-F24 alone	Ctrl+Shift+Space
Show Freehand	No	One or more modifiers plus a supported primary key; or F13-F24 alone	Unassigned
Hold to talk	No	The global forms above; or two or more modifiers alone	Unassigned

The supported primary-key groups are A-Z, 0-9, Space, F1-F11, and F13-F24. F12 is rejected because Windows reserves it for the debugger. F13-F24 are the only unmodified keys accepted: they are intended as dedicated programmable keys and avoid taking over ordinary typing or navigation.

macOS

Action	Accepted forms	Default
Toggle recording	Modifier plus a supported primary key; or F13–F20 alone	Control+Shift+Space
Show Freehand	Modifier plus a supported primary key; or F13–F20 alone	Unassigned
Hold to talk	The forms above; or two or more modifiers alone	Unassigned

Supported primary keys are A–Z, 0–9, Space, and F1–F20, including F12. F21–F24 are not mapped. Labels use Command and Option. Mappings use physical ANSI/QWERTY positions: check your layout and avoid system-reserved combinations. Fn is not a recordable modifier, though hardware may use it to produce a function-key event.

macOS permissions and recovery

Toggle/Show use Carbon shortcuts without Accessibility or Input Monitoring. Capturing a new shortcut needs both permissions; hold-to-talk needs keyboard observation. After restoring access or leaving Secure Input, release all keys and choose Retry hold-to-talk. See macOS setup.

Deliberately excluded inputs (Windows)

Input	Reason or behavior
Navigation/editing keys	Failed or delayed registration could interfere with document use
OEM punctuation	Virtual-key meaning varies by layout and AltGr behavior
Media/browser keys, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock	Retain their system or hardware purpose
Fn itself	Usually has no standalone Windows virtual key; translated combinations may produce a supported key such as F13–F24
Left/right Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Win	Normalize to one logical modifier, matching RegisterHotKey and keeping saved chords portable

Ctrl+Alt chords may overlap AltGr on international layouts. Freehand therefore does not describe a locally valid chord as universally safe or available. The settings UI explains the accepted shape, while native acceptance testing must cover the user’s representative layouts and accessibility-key configuration.

Conflicts and capture results (Windows)

Result	What to do
Incomplete, unsupported, or Windows-reserved combination	Record a supported form from the Windows table
Duplicate in Freehand	Assign a different combination
Cancelled or timed out	Try capture again; the previous bindings are restored
Rejected during Save	Try another combination; the complete previous shortcut set is restored
Saved shortcut unavailable at startup	Open Settings → Shortcuts to replace it, or Clear and save

Why a valid capture can still fail during Save

Windows does not expose a supported inventory of global shortcuts owned by other processes. Toggle and show availability is therefore known only when RegisterHotKey runs during Save. A Windows rejection is reported separately from an in-app duplicate, and the settings transaction restores the complete previous shortcut set rather than persisting a partially applied replacement.

Shortcut capture temporarily pauses Freehand’s working shortcuts. Press Escape to cancel. A captured, rejected, cancelled, or timed-out attempt restores the previous bindings.

If a saved shortcut is unavailable at startup, Freehand keeps your saved choice but leaves that binding inactive. Other available shortcuts still work. No fallback key is selected automatically. Open Settings → Shortcuts to record a replacement directly, or Clear, save, and record one later. Capture only pauses and restores bindings Freehand successfully registered; an existing startup conflict does not prevent recording a replacement.

Use VoiceRecord, review, and deliver a transcript.

macOS setupManage permissions and recover keyboard observation.