User Manual
Master the art of offline voice utility. (v3.8.2)
Voice to Text (Listen)
The core power of OneSentence is converting your spoken thoughts into text instantly, without ever needing an internet connection.
Trigger
Press ⌘ + 5 to start recording. You will see the menu bar icon change to show an exclamation badge.
Speak
Speak clearly into your microphone. Since OneSentence uses a local implementation of OpenAI's Whisper Large-v2 model, you can speak in any major language with total privacy. The default recording limit is 300 seconds, but this can be adjusted in Settings.
Stop
Press ⌘ + 5 again to stop. The app will immediately begin offline processing.
The "Success" Sound
Wait for a subtle completion tone. This sound is your confirmation that the AI has finished transcribing and your text is ready.
Paste Anywhere
The transcribed text is now on your system clipboard. Just press ⌘ + V in any app to paste your thoughts.
Text to Speech (Read)
Transform any English text on your screen into a professional narration using pro-audio AI voices specialized for high-fidelity English.
How to trigger:
- Highlight any text in any application (Browser, PDF, Email, etc).
- Press ⌘ + 6.
- OneSentence utilizes Clipboard Snapshot technology to automatically copy the selection and begin speaking using the Supertonic engine, while preserving your previous clipboard content.
- To stop early, just press ⌘ + 6 again.
Snippets (Universal Palette)
The Universal Palette puts your entire library of canned responses, code snippets, and templates at your fingertips. It works in every application on your Mac.
Setup
Open Settings > Snippets and select a folder on your Mac where you want to store your snippets. OneSentence will watch this folder for changes.
Create
Create plain text files in your snippets folder. Supported formats:
.txtor.md: Standard text files..snippet: Useful for distinguishing snippet files..yasnippet: Compatible with Emacs YASnippet format.
Trigger
Press ⌘ + ⇧ + Space (Command + Shift + Space) anywhere. A floating search bar will appear.
Paste
Type to fuzzy-search your files. Use Arrow keys to navigate. Press Enter to paste the content into your active application. OneSentence uses a "Smart Paste" mechanism that preserves your clipboard history.
Power Features
Refine Punctuation
OneSentence automatically optimizes the text before reading. It adds missing periods, formats smart quotes and dashes, and caps repetitive marks to ensure the text remains clean and readable for the speaking voice.
Adjustable Timeout
By default, recording for transcription stops automatically after 300 seconds to prevent accidental runaway captures. You can increase or decrease this in the Speech-to-Text section to match your dictation style.
Read transcription back to me
When enabled in Settings, OneSentence will automatically read your transcribed text back to you immediately after transcription finishes. This is perfect for eyes-free confirmation of your dictation.
Settings Reference
General
Application
Launch at Login
Keep OneSentence ready in your menu bar every time you start your Mac.
Shortcuts
Listen & Read Selection
Customize your global hotkeys for Listen (default ⌘5) and Read Selection (default ⌘6). These work system-wide.
Speech-to-Text
Recording Timeout
Configure how long the app should listen before automatically stopping. Adjustable from 10 seconds to 10 minutes.
Text-to-Speech
Playback Speed
Adjust the narration speed from 0.5x to 2.0x.
Diffusion Steps
Control the quality of AI voice synthesis. Higher steps (up to 30) result in more natural speech but require more processing time.
Refine Punctuation
Automatically polishes transcription with professional formatting, smart quotes, and intelligent spacing.
Repair Encoding Errors
Detects and corrects distorted characters caused by encoding issues during transcription.
Alerts & Feedback
Sound Effects
Hear confirmation tones when you start or stop recording, or when an error occurs.
Visual Alerts
Displays a native-style "Pill" HUD at the top of your screen to provide visual status for hotkey actions.
Read transcription back to me
Automatically speaks the text aloud after recording.
Voices
OneSentence comes pre-installed with 10 professional AI voices (5 Male, 5 Female) specialized for high-fidelity English narration. All voices are available immediately for offline use without additional downloads.
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Instant Selection: Choose any voice from the curated list. Your selection is applied instantly across the entire system.
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Zero Latency: Because all voice parameters are already on your Mac, there is no waiting time when switching between different personas.
Models
Neural Engine Acceleration
On macOS 14+, OneSentence can utilize the Apple Neural Engine. This offloads processing to dedicated AI cores, maximizing battery efficiency. The app dynamically uses Metal (GPU) for recordings under 3 minutes for near-instant response, and switches to the Neural Engine for longer recordings. This requires an "Accelerator" model for each transcription model.
Transcription Language
You can choose "Auto" to have the model discern the language automatically from your first few words, but selecting a specific language improves transcription speed and prevents detection errors.
Whisper Model Selection
Choose the engine that powers your transcription. The Large-v2 model offers industry-leading accuracy, while smaller models provide near-instant results on older hardware.
On-Demand Downloading
OneSentence only downloads the models you actually use. You can switch models at any time; the app will securely download and verify the new assets automatically.
Performance Optimization
Enable Whisper Prewarming to initialize transcription resources in the background when the app starts. This reduces the initial delay for your first capture request.
Audio
Precision control over your hardware. Switch between any connected audio device without restarting the app.
Snippets
Manage your snippet libraries for the Universal Palette.
Snippet Source Folder
Select the directory on your Mac where OneSentence looks for your snippet files. You can change this at any time to switch between different libraries (e.g., Personal vs. Work).
Reload Snippets
OneSentence automatically detects changes in your snippets folder, but you can force a manual reload here if a new file isn't showing up immediately.
Maintenance
Built-in tools to manage your local data and prepare for a clean uninstallation if needed.
Configuration
Reset Settings
Restores all application preferences and hotkeys to factory defaults. This is useful if you want a fresh configuration but want to keep your downloaded AI models.
Deep Cleanup
Factory Reset
The most comprehensive cleanup option. This deletes all local models (~4GB), custom settings, and hotkeys. OneSentence will return to its initial setup state next time it is opened. This does not delete the application bundle itself.
Troubleshooting
Enable Debug Logging
When enabled, detailed logs and recorded audio files are written to the application data folder for troubleshooting. You can open the log folder directly from this section to inspect or share diagnostic data.