Menu Bar Controls
Steno lives in the macOS menu bar and supports both left-click and right-click interactions.
- Left-click: open the main Steno window.
- Right-click: open quick actions:
- Show Steno
- Start or Stop Hands-Free
- Quit Steno
The menu bar icon changes by state:
- idle:
mic.circle - hands-free enabled:
mic.circle.fill - recording:
waveform.circle.fill
Record Tab
The Record tab is the default working surface.
It includes:
- live status text (
Idle,Recording,Transcribing, etc.) - mic button for hands-free toggling
- recording timer while capture is active
- error banner for permission or hotkey registration problems
- "Last Transcript" panel with copy and paste actions
If no transcript exists yet, Steno shows contextual guidance based on your hotkey and permission state.
History Tab
History groups transcripts by date labels (Today, Yesterday, or date), with:
- search bar
- expand/collapse rows
- insertion status pills (
Inserted,Copied,Failed) - quick copy and paste actions
- context menu with delete
The tab is optimized for fast recovery when insertion fails in the target app.
Settings Tab
Settings is a single scrollable view with grouped cards:
- Permissions
- Recording
- Engine
- Cleanup
- Text Output
- Media
- Word Corrections
- Cleanup Style
- Text Shortcuts
- General
Bottom actions:
- Save and Apply
- Save API Key
- Clear API Key
Use this tab to tune behavior after your first successful dictation.