Voice Keyboard on Mac & Windows
Press a shortcut in any app, speak, press it again — Laxis pastes clean, polished text where your cursor is.
Requirements
- The Laxis desktop app from laxis.com/download or the Microsoft Store. (The Mac App Store version doesn't include the Voice Keyboard.)
- You're signed in, and Laxis is running (it can stay in your menu bar or system tray).
Set it up
Open Voice Keyboard
Click Voice Keyboard in the sidebar, then Enable Voice Keyboard. (Or choose Try the Voice Keyboard in the Get started checklist.)
Allow permissions (Mac)
Allow Microphone access, and allow Laxis to paste text into any text box. The second one opens System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, where you turn on Laxis. Windows doesn't need this step.
Test your shortcut
Press the Voice Input shortcut once so Laxis can confirm it works.
Try it out
A few short practice rounds show dictation, Polish, Translation, and Agent. Then click Let's go.
The shortcuts only turn on after you finish setup. Set up later leaves the Voice Keyboard off until you come back.
Shortcuts
| Action | Mac | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Voice Input — dictate | Left Option | Left Ctrl + Left Win |
| Translation — speak, insert the translation | Left Shift + Left Option | Left Ctrl + Left Win + Space |
| Agent — say what to write | Left Option + Left Command | Left Ctrl + Left Win + Left Alt |
Left and right keys are different — for example, Right Option doesn't start dictation. You can change any shortcut in Settings → Voice Keyboard.
Dictate
- Click into any text field, in any app.
- Press the Voice Input shortcut once. You'll hear a short sound, and a small pill appears at the bottom of your screen with the live transcript.
- Speak.
- Press the shortcut again to stop. The pill shows "Processing...", then "Pasting...", and the text appears in your field.
- It's press to start, press to stop — you don't need to hold the keys.
- Discard a take: press Esc, or click the X on the pill. Nothing is pasted.
- If you stop talking, Laxis reminds you how to finish after 3 seconds and stops on its own after 9 seconds of silence (your text is still pasted).
- A single take can be up to 5 minutes long.
Translation
Press the Translation shortcut, speak in any language, and press it again. Laxis pastes the translation in your Translation Target language (English by default). Premium.
Agent
Press the Agent shortcut and say what you want written — for example "Write a friendly reply saying Thursday works and ask for an agenda." Press it again: Laxis writes the text and types it where you're working. If your last request was less than 5 minutes ago, you can follow up with something like "make it shorter". Premium — on the Basic plan you'll see "AI Chat requires a premium plan. Please upgrade."
The floating pill
When Laxis is idle, a small bar sits at the bottom center of your main screen. Hover it to see your shortcut, a language button (for example AUTO or EN), and a gear. Right-click the pill (or click the gear) to:
- Microphone — choose which microphone the Voice Keyboard uses, or Auto-detect.
- Polish dictation — turn Polish on or off.
- Settings… — open the Voice Keyboard settings.
To hide the idle pill, turn off Show Voice Keyboard at all times in settings. The pill still appears while you dictate.
Settings
Go to Settings → Voice Keyboard:
- Voice Input Shortcut, Translation Shortcut, Agent Shortcut — click a shortcut box and press your new keys. Every shortcut needs at least one modifier key (Fn, Control, Option, Command, Alt, or Shift). Click X to turn off the Translation or Agent shortcut.
- Show Voice Keyboard at all times — show the idle pill.
- Dictation sounds — the start and stop sounds.
- Polish dictation (on by default) — clean up your dictation with AI before pasting. Turn it off for the fastest, word-for-word results.
- Polish style — Standard writes what you meant (fillers removed, self-corrections resolved, dictated lists formatted). Keep spoken words only cleans up noise and keeps your wording.
- Polish tone — Formal, Casual (default), Very casual (lowercase, minimal punctuation), or Excited.
- Language — the language you speak (Auto-detect by default, or one of 60 languages).
- Translation Target — the language Translation writes in.
- Reset to default — restore all Voice Keyboard settings.
History
The Voice Keyboard page in the sidebar shows your dictation history, your words, words per minute, and streak. Filter by All, Dictation, or Q&A (Agent), click Copy text to reuse an entry, or delete it. History is stored on this computer only.
Missed a paste?
Every dictation is saved to History before it's pasted. If the text didn't land where you expected, copy it from the Voice Keyboard page.
Troubleshooting
The shortcut does nothing (Mac). Laxis needs Accessibility permission to detect the shortcut and paste. Go to Settings → General → Permissions → Accessibility → Open System Settings and turn on Laxis. Also check that you're signed in, Laxis is running, and setup is finished (the Voice Keyboard page shows your history rather than Enable Voice Keyboard).
The shortcut stopped working after my PC woke up (Windows). Click the Laxis window once to reconnect the shortcuts.
"Text copied to clipboard". Laxis couldn't paste automatically, so your text is on the clipboard — press Cmd+V (Mac) or Ctrl+V (Windows). On a Mac, turn on Accessibility for Laxis to fix auto-paste.
"Polish timed out — inserted the raw transcript". The AI took too long, so Laxis pasted your words as spoken. Try again, or turn off Polish for speed.
Dictation starts when I type special characters with Option (Mac). Change the Voice Input shortcut to another combination in Settings → Voice Keyboard.
Wrong microphone. Right-click the pill → Microphone and pick the right one.
My clipboard image disappeared. Laxis restores text on your clipboard after pasting, but not images or rich content.
"Voice Keyboard quota exhausted". You've used this month's transcription minutes. They reset each billing month, or you can upgrade.
I can't find the Voice Keyboard tab in Settings. It appears after you finish setup.