Keyboard shortcuts

RainbowSay is built around one key. The spacebar does the right thing for the moment you’re in; a few others help in the chat and the Dashboard.

The spacebar

When	Space does
Listening — a sentence is being spoken	Translate now: pause the player and make a card from what’s been said so far
Listening — a card is showing	Continue: resume the player
Listening — on standby after silence	Wake the session and resume the player
Speaking, Push-to-talk	Hold to talk, release to translate. If the button was latched by a tap, Space stops the recording
Speaking, Auto	Translate now, or continue after a card
Suspended, or nothing to translate	Nothing — the key goes to your player as usual

Good to know:

• It works from any app: that is what the Accessibility permission — which every Listening and Speaking session needs — is for.
• It stays out of the way of typing: in text fields, while you’re in the middle of typing, and where a bare Space already has a job (Quick Look in Finder, Spotlight, System Settings), the key is passed through.
• Turn it off per session kind with Spacebar control in Settings → then Session → then Listening → then Sentence detection (or Speaking).

In the overlay

Key	Does
Enter in the chat field	Send your question
Esc	Close the chat; unpin a pinned word; close the + Add language list
Enter on the focused microphone button	Start / stop talking (a toggle, for keyboard-only use)
Enter / Esc in the Other… language field	Confirm / cancel the language you typed

In the Dashboard

Key	Does
Enter or Space on a focused session row	Open that session
↑ ↓ Home End in a menu	Move between items; Esc closes it
Double-click the Pace slider	Reset the spoken-translation pace to 1.0×

Media keys still work

Your keyboard’s Play/Pause key keeps controlling your player during a session, and the menu-bar menu has a Play/Pause Media item that does the same.

Next

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