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Quick Start

Before you begin

You need an OpenAI API key — the app uses OpenAI Whisper for transcription and GPT-4 for AI enhancements. If you don't have one, sign up at platform.openai.com.

Step 1 — Enter your API key

  1. Open Voice Recorder Forge.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Paste your OpenAI API key into the OpenAI API Key field.
  4. Click Save Settings.

A warning banner at the top of the app disappears once a valid key is detected.

Step 2 — Dictate your first sentence

  1. Open any text field in any application (e.g., a browser address bar, Notepad, email client).
  2. Press Ctrl+Shift+Space (the default dictation hotkey).
  3. Speak clearly. A small overlay indicator appears in the corner of your screen while recording.
  4. Press Ctrl+Shift+Space again to stop.
  5. Your transcribed text is automatically inserted at the cursor.

Tip: If auto-editing is enabled, filler words and grammatical errors are cleaned up before the text is inserted.

Step 3 — Record a meeting

  1. Click the Meetings tab.
  2. Optionally type a title for the meeting in the title field.
  3. Click Start Meeting.
  4. Talk, share audio, or run a call — the app captures your microphone.
  5. Click Stop Meeting when finished.
  6. Transcription begins automatically. The transcript appears in the meeting entry below.

Step 4 — View your transcript

  1. In the Meetings tab, find your recorded session in the list.
  2. Click the entry to expand the full transcript.
  3. Use Enhance Notes to run AI summarisation and extract action items.

Step 5 — Explore settings

Head to Settings to customise:

  • Transcription language
  • Dictation hotkey
  • Auto-edit toggle
  • UI theme (Light / Dark / System)

See General Settings for a full reference.