Dictation lets you speak naturally while Heidi transcribes your words into text as you work across the product — including notes, documents, and Ask Heidi.

The fastest way to dictate is with Universal Dictation, which uses a press-and-hold hotkey so you can start speaking straight away. Cursor Dictation is still available for clinicians who are used to it and prefer clicking to stop dictation.

This is currently only available to a limited number of users

Universal Dictation lets you start dictating immediately using a single hotkey (`). Click directly into a text field or just press, speak, and release - and then decide where to paste your input.

Press and hold the hotkey (`) to dictate instantly, with a visual indicator showing that dictation is active.

A hotkey is a keyboard shortcut that lets you start an action instantly, without clicking through menus or buttons.

In Heidi, the backtick (`) key is used for Universal Dictation.

The backtick key behaves normally unless you press and hold it to dictate. While dictating, a small pop-up appears on screen to show that dictation is active.

Universal Dictation gives you flexibility, depending on how you want to work.

If you click into a note, document, or input field before pressing the hotkey, your dictated text appears directly where your cursor is placed — just like typing, but hands-free.

If no text field is selected when you dictate, Heidi shows a clipboard containing your transcribed text. From there, you can copy it and paste it into any note, document, or input field in Heidi.

When no text field is selected, Heidi shows a clipboard with your transcribed text.

This is useful when you want to capture a thought quickly and decide where it should go afterwards.

Cursor Dictation is still available for clinicians who are used to Heidi's inline dictation and prefer manually starting and stopping dictation.

Click the microphone icon to start Cursor Dictation, and click again to stop.

While dictating, you’ll see an on-screen indicator showing that Heidi is listening.

Text may briefly self-correct as the full phrase is understood, so if things look slightly off mid-sentence, keep speaking.

You can use voice commands while dictating to format and edit your text.

💡 Numbers are transcribed as numerals automatically — for example, saying “ninety nine” will appear as 99.

Most dictation issues are related to microphone access and can be fixed quickly.

Not hearing you or seeing an error?

If issues persist, reach out to support and we’ll help you get sorted.