Dictate anywhere on your Mac — even with no text field to type into
OpenWhisp's floating Scratchpad lets you dictate on a Mac even when no app has a text field focused. Open it from the menu bar (or the openwhisp://scratchpad URL), and an always-on-top panel appears to talk or type into. It holds a list of notes, saves them on-device, and never sends anything to the cloud.
Dictation apps have a blind spot: they need somewhere to put the words. If no text field is focused — you’re staring at your desktop, a full-screen video, a Finder window — there’s nowhere for the transcript to go. The thought you wanted to capture waits until you find an app to type into, and by then it’s often gone.
OpenWhisp’s floating Scratchpad fixes that. It’s a small, always-on-top note panel you can summon anytime and talk straight into — no target app required.
How it works
- Open the Scratchpad from the OpenWhisp menu-bar icon (or run
open "openwhisp://scratchpad"from a launcher). - The panel floats on top of your other windows and takes focus.
- Start a dictation with your trigger key — the text appends into the active note. Or just type.
- Keep several notes in a list; each shows a small provenance line (when it was last dictated vs. typed), newest first.
A capture surface, kept on your Mac
The Scratchpad is a quick-capture buffer, not a cloud notes service. Your notes are saved on device and persist between launches, and nothing leaves your Mac — the same local-first, private posture as the rest of OpenWhisp. It’s the fastest way to get a fleeting thought out of your head and into text when there’s no document open to hold it.
Where it fits
Think of it as the voice equivalent of a sticky note: a fleeting to-do while you’re heads-down in a call, a quote you want to keep while reading, a reminder mid-task. When you’re ready, copy it into wherever it belongs. And because you can open it from a URL, you can bind it to a launcher hotkey and have a capture note one keystroke away.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I dictate on a Mac without a text field focused?
- Yes. OpenWhisp's floating Scratchpad is an always-on-top note panel you can open from the menu bar (or the openwhisp://scratchpad URL) and dictate into anytime, even when no other app has a text field focused.
- Where are Scratchpad notes stored?
- On your Mac. The Scratchpad keeps a local list of notes that persist between launches; nothing is uploaded to any server.
- Can I open the Scratchpad with a shortcut?
- Yes. It responds to the openwhisp://scratchpad URL, so you can trigger it from Raycast, Alfred, or any launcher and bind that to a hotkey.
Try OpenWhisp
Free, open source, and 100% on-device dictation for Apple Silicon Macs.