Write
Catch a thought without leaving what you are doing
Good thoughts arrive while you are doing something else. Stopping to find the app and the right note costs you either the thought or the thing you were doing — so it becomes a voice memo you never play back, or nothing. MindMax makes it one shortcut over any app: say it or type it, read it, press Enter, and it is in today’s note.
- From any app
- Option-Shift-Space, then speak or type
- Two exits
- ↵ today’s note as written · ⌘↵ filed by AI
- Runs on
- macOS (Apple silicon) · Windows
- Price
- Free app · AI plans from $10/mo, or your own key
- AI
- Included, or your own API key
One shortcut, over whatever you are doing
You should not have to find MindMax’s window to write something down in it — or be pulled into it afterwards.
- Press Option-Shift-Space (Alt+Shift+Space on Windows) and a small capsule appears at the top of the screen, over the browser, the spreadsheet or the call you are on. It starts listening; if you would rather type, just type.
- The words appear as you talk. Press Enter, or simply stop — after a pause, with a three-second countdown you can talk over — and it waits for you to read it and fix the word it misheard.
- Hide it with Esc and the draft is still there next time you press the shortcut. Only the × throws it away.
Two keys: keep it as said, or hand it over
Once you have read it, the key you press decides what happens next. Nothing is saved before you have seen it.
- Enter saves it to the end of today’s daily note, with the time, exactly as it reads in the box. No AI, and you never leave the app you were in.
- ⌘Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows) brings MindMax forward and hands it to the AI quick note: the wording is corrected and the thought is filed under the right heading of the note you have open, as a change you accept.
- Use Enter for a line you will sort later, ⌘Enter when it already belongs somewhere.
The rest of it
Speak the language you think in
The language is detected from what you say, not taken from the app’s setting, and punctuation is added as it goes. Switch languages between notes without touching a setting.
Long thoughts are not lost to one bad second
A longer dictation is transcribed in pieces. If one piece fails, the rest is kept and that piece can be retried on its own.
Voice in a note, too
Hold the microphone in a note’s quick-note box to talk instead of type. The transcript waits in the box until you send it.
Voice in the assistant
Hold the microphone in the chat box to ask a question out loud. The transcript waits for you to send, the same as a quick note does.
Just Markdown in your folder
Daily notes are ordinary files. Nothing is kept in a separate capture app you would have to export from later.
Coming from a voice-memo app or phone dictation
Most people catch thoughts with whatever is nearest and sort them later, or never. Here is what changes — and the rows where your phone is still the better tool.
| Topic | A voice-memo app or phone dictationHow most people catch a thought today | In MindMax |
|---|---|---|
| Getting it down | Find the app, then the note, then the place in it. | One shortcut over whatever app you are in — and you stay there. |
| What you end up with | A recording to listen back to, or a transcript with every “um” in it. | Text you read and corrected before it was saved — or corrected and filed by the AI. |
| Where it goes | A separate app you mean to sort later. | Today’s note with the time, or under its heading in the note you are writing — Markdown in your folder. |
| Away from your desk | Your phone is in your pocket on a walk. | Only at your computer — a desktop app for macOS and Windows. |
| An hour-long meeting | A recorder app takes it all down. | Ten minutes at most per recording; this is for a sentence or a minute. |
One part of a loop: read, think, write
Your notes, and the two hundred PDFs you read to write them, sit in one folder — where a single AI works across both. Tools you would otherwise stitch together each hold one half of that.
- ReadRead the papers and books your thoughts come from, and ask about them with citations back to the page.
- ThinkWhen notes pile up around one question, take it to a canvas and think it through branch by branch.
- WriteThis pageCatch thoughts as they come, then let the AI file them into the notes you will draft from.
Where it gets hard
- Transcription can mishear
Names, jargon and a noisy room are where it goes wrong. That is why the transcript always stops for you to read before it is saved or filed — a second is enough to catch the word that came out wrong.
- It is for thoughts, not meetings
This is built for things you say in a sentence or a minute. It is not a meeting recorder: there is no speaker separation, no hour-long transcript, and a single recording stops at ten minutes.
- Only at your computer
MindMax is a desktop app for macOS and Windows. A thought you have on a walk still goes into your phone. Paste it into the capsule when you are back, and it is saved or filed the same way.
Common questions
Can I dictate a note without switching to MindMax?
Yes. A global shortcut — Option-Shift-Space on a Mac, Alt+Shift+Space on Windows, changeable in settings — opens a small capsule over whatever app you are in, even with MindMax in the background. Press Enter to stop and read it, then Enter again to save it to today’s daily note; you never leave the app you were in. If another app already owns the shortcut, you are told so.
Where does a voice note end up?
Enter in the capsule: at the end of today’s daily note, with the time, in the knowledge base you were last working in. ⌘Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows): in the note you have open, if it is a Markdown or text file you can edit, otherwise today’s daily note — under the heading it belongs to, as a change you accept.
Does the AI change what I dictated?
Not with Enter — the capsule saves exactly what is in the box. With ⌘Enter the AI quick note fixes the wording (typos, misheard words, grammar) and tidies the form, but every point, name, number and hedge stays and nothing is added. When it is not sure about a correction, it lists it for you to check.
What if I close the capsule by accident?
Esc, or clicking somewhere else, only hides it — recording stops, and the draft is still there next time you press the shortcut. The × is the only way to throw a draft away.
Which languages does voice input understand?
The language is detected from what you say rather than taken from the interface setting, so you can dictate in a different language from the one the app is in. Punctuation is added as it transcribes.
Why does it keep listening after I stop?
Recording stops by itself after a pause, but steady background noise can read as speech. Press Enter to finish, or Esc to put it away with the draft kept, rather than relying on the silence.
Does voice work with my own API key, and does it cost credits?
On a subscription, voice works out of the box and spends credits like any other model work. With your own API key, transcription goes to a speech model at your provider — if it offers none, pick one for voice in model settings.
See also
What happens after ⌘Enter: your words corrected, filed under the right heading, and the note tidied when you ask.
Where the daily notes land, and where you write from them afterwards.
Which model hears you, when you would rather choose it yourself.
The shortcut, the two ways out of the capsule, and what the AI keeps exactly as you said it.