General settings and hotkeys
This page is your map to the InkSpoke Settings window: how to open it, what lives in each corner of the left nav, every option on the Configuration → General page, and how to rebind the six global hotkeys — including the Windows, macOS, and Linux defaults.
Opening Settings
Settings lives in the system tray, not in a top menu bar:
- Double-click the InkSpoke tray icon, or
- Right-click the tray icon and choose Settings.
The window is frameless with a custom title bar. On macOS you'll see the usual traffic-light buttons; on Windows and Linux you get minimize / maximize / close.
The Settings window
A grouped sidebar on the left switches between top-level pages; the page you pick fills the panel on the right. A collapse toggle in the title bar shrinks the sidebar to icons only when you want more room.
┌────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│ Home │ │
│ │ │
│ APP │ │
│ Configuration │ The selected │
│ Hands-Free │ page's content │
│ │ shows here. │
│ INTELLIGENCE │ │
│ AI Models │ │
│ Workspaces │ │
│ Vocabulary │ │
│ │ │
│ ACCOUNT │ │
│ History │ │
│ │ │
│ Account │ │
└────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘
| Nav item | Group | What's there |
|---|---|---|
| Home | — | The landing dashboard. |
| Configuration | App | General preferences, hotkeys, audio, mobile sync — the page this guide focuses on. |
| Hands-Free | App | Wake word and voice commands. |
| AI Models | Intelligence | Default speech and text models, on-device downloads, and BYOK providers. |
| Workspaces | Intelligence | Your per-domain vocabulary, tone, and knowledge. |
| Vocabulary | Intelligence | Words and phrases InkSpoke should always get right. |
| History | Account | Your local log of dictations, meetings, and file imports. |
| Account | Account (bottom) | Sign-in, plan, license, and cloud sync. |
Configuration itself is tabbed — General, Hotkeys, Audio, and more sit along the top of the page. This guide covers General and Hotkeys; audio and model options have their own page.
Preferences are saved to settings.json in your InkSpoke app-data folder. Sensitive values — provider API keys and sync keys — are never written there; they live in your operating system's keychain.
Configuration → General
The General tab holds app-wide preferences and a few housekeeping actions. Every option below ships with a sensible default, so you can leave the whole page untouched and still have a good experience.
Interface and overlay
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| UI Language | Auto (from your OS) | The language of the InkSpoke interface — separate from the language you dictate in. Changes apply live, no restart. |
| Overlay Style | Classic | The look of the listening overlay: the compact Classic bar, or the Capsule with a live-transcript box. |
| Overlay Position | Center | Where the listening overlay anchors on your active screen: Follow cursor, Center, or one of eight screen edges and corners. |
| Balloon Position | Default | Where InkSpoke's notification balloons appear. Default keeps each OS's normal placement. |
Text delivery
These three control how finished text lands in the app you're writing into. There's a whole page on the mechanics — this is the quick version.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Text Injection Mode | Auto | How text reaches the focused app: Auto (best method per app), Clipboard paste, or Send keys (types character by character). |
| RDP Newline Mode | Shift + Return | How line breaks are delivered inside a Microsoft Remote Desktop session. Options: Text, Return key, Shift + Return, Ctrl + Return, and Cmd + Return (macOS only). |
| Smart Space Injection | Off | Auto-prepends a space when your cursor sits right after a non-space character, so dictated text doesn't run into the previous word. |
For the full story on Auto vs. Clipboard vs. Send keys, see Text injection.
AI and performance
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| AI Refinement | On | The master switch for LLM refinement across the entire app. Turn it off to inject raw transcripts everywhere. |
| Model Memory | Auto-unload · 10 min idle | How InkSpoke manages the memory used by loaded speech and AI models (see below). |
Model Memory has three strategies, plus an Unload models now button to free memory on demand:
| Strategy | What it does |
|---|---|
| Always loaded | Keep models resident for the fastest possible start every time. |
| Auto-unload (default) | Release the memory after a period of inactivity — the idle timeout, 10 minutes by default. |
| Manual | Only unload when you click Unload models now. |
On a machine with plenty of RAM that you dictate into all day, Always loaded keeps every activation snappy. On a laptop where you dictate in bursts, the default Auto-unload gives the memory back between sessions.
History and storage
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| History Retention | No limit | How long your dictation, meeting, and import history is kept before automatic cleanup. Choices: No limit, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year. |
| Storage — Base path | Default folder | Where InkSpoke keeps its local data. |
| Storage — Recordings path | Follows base path | Override just the recordings location. |
| Storage — Models path | Follows base path | Override just where downloaded models are stored. |
Pointing a storage path somewhere new prompts a file-migration confirmation before InkSpoke moves the existing data. Read the dialog before you confirm.
Clear All History is a one-shot cleanup that wipes your local transaction history.
Because it permanently deletes your local history, InkSpoke asks you to type a confirmation phrase before it runs. There is no recycle bin — cleared history is gone.
Startup
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-start on login | Off | Launches InkSpoke automatically when you sign in. Registered per-OS: a Registry Run key on Windows, a LaunchAgent on macOS, an autostart .desktop entry on Linux. |
| Start minimized | Off | Starts straight to the tray instead of opening the Settings window. Pairs naturally with Auto-start on login. |
Advanced (hold Cmd / Ctrl)
An Advanced section stays hidden until you hold Cmd (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows / Linux) as you open General. It's meant for troubleshooting, usually when support asks for it.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Debug logging | Off | Raises the log level live for more detailed diagnostic logs. |
| Verbose prompt logging | Off | Records the full prompts sent to the AI refinement model — useful for debugging refinement, but more revealing in your logs. |
These toggles add noise (and, for verbose prompt logging, your prompt text) to the logs. Turn them on only while chasing a specific problem, then turn them back off.
Configuration → Hotkeys
The Hotkeys tab is where you rebind InkSpoke's six global shortcuts. Each shortcut gets its own row: a pill showing the current combo, a record button (mic icon), and a reset-to-default button (undo icon).
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Activation [ Alt + Space ] 🎙 ↺ │
│ Secondary Activation [ Ctrl+Shift+Space ] 🎙 ↺ │
│ Command Mode [ Alt + Shift + C ] 🎙 ↺ │
│ AI Refinement toggle [ Alt + Shift + R ] 🎙 ↺ │
│ Hands-Free toggle [ Alt + Shift + H ] 🎙 ↺ │
│ Smart Injection toggle [ Not set ] 🎙 ↺ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Recording a new shortcut
- Click the record button on the row you want to change.
- Press the key combination you want. The inline recorder captures it as you hold the keys.
- If the combo clashes with a reserved OS shortcut or another InkSpoke binding, an orange conflict warning appears — pick something else.
- Click Save on the bar at the bottom (it shows up once you've made a change). Cancel discards your edits.
The Hotkeys tab also gives you a Preview Overlay button to see the listening overlay without dictating, and a short How to Use guide. To restore any single shortcut, click its reset (undo) button.
Hotkey reference
InkSpoke ships with five bound shortcuts plus one you can opt into. Only the display differs by platform — macOS uses the ⌥ ⌃ ⇧ glyphs, while Windows and Linux spell the keys out. Every one of the six is configurable on every OS.
| Action | What it does | Windows / Linux | macOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activation | Start / stop a dictation | Alt + Space | ⌥ + Space |
| Secondary Activation | Identical start / stop — a fallback trigger | Ctrl + Shift + Space | ⌃ + ⇧ + Space |
| Command Mode | Transform the selected text by voice | Alt + Shift + C | ⌥ + ⇧ + C |
| AI Refinement toggle | Turn LLM refinement on / off on the fly | Alt + Shift + R | ⌥ + ⇧ + R |
| Hands-Free toggle | Turn wake-word / voice-command listening on / off | Alt + Shift + H | ⌥ + ⇧ + H |
| Smart Injection toggle | Turn workspace smart-matching on / off | Not set | Not set |
This one ships unbound on purpose — it stays inert until you assign a combo on the Hotkeys tab. The other five work out of the box.
While the listening overlay is up, Esc cancels and the arrow keys cycle the language picker. Those are fixed and don't appear on the Hotkeys tab — only the six global shortcuts above are configurable.
Next steps
- Audio and models — microphone, dictation mode, noise suppression, and choosing your speech and AI models.
- Account, sync, and updates — sign-in, plan and license, cloud sync, and auto-updates.
- Text injection — how Auto, Clipboard paste, and Send keys deliver your words into any app.
- Push-to-talk basics — the activation hotkeys in action.