# Dictate anywhere. Nothing leaves your computer.

Design preview. By Josef Long, October 17, 2026.

Hold a key in Word, Outlook or any text field, speak, and let go. The words are typed where your cursor is, cleaned up, and checked. The speech is processed on your own computer, so a client's name, a figure or a strategy never has to travel to a dictation vendor to become text.

## How it works

1. Hold the key and speak. A small pill floats above whatever you are working in. It does not take focus, and it shows a level meter and your words as you say them.
2. Let go. The pill says "Polishing" while a local model tidies the wording in the style you chose.
3. The words appear at the cursor. The pill reads "Typed 33 words" with an Undo.
4. It works in Word, Outlook, your document management system, a browser or any text field. Where there is no text field, it copies the words instead.

## Made for legal work

- Your vocabulary. It uses the firm's word list. A matter's own list applies only when the dictation is tied to that matter.
- Names stay with the matter. Correct "Reyez" to "Reyes" and it offers to remember the name for that matter only, not firm-wide.
- Polish modes, with a check. Raw, Clean, Email, Letter or Memo. After polishing, it checks that every number, date, amount, name and citation is unchanged, and types the raw words if anything differs.
- Approved clauses by voice. A trigger phrase inserts the firm's approved clause or privilege footer exactly, with no AI involved.
- Time entries by voice. Say "time: point three, Reyes, call with opposing counsel" in any app. It drafts an entry for a matter you may see and waits for your approval before anything posts.
- Simple spoken commands: new line, new paragraph, scratch that and stop dictating. A phrase counts only as a whole utterance after a pause.

## What stays on your computer

- The speech model runs locally. Dictation is designed to keep working with the network blocked.
- Audio is held in a short rolling memory window, discarded right after transcription, and not written to disk, a log or a crash dump.
- No recording is created and no voiceprint processing is applied.
- It avoids browser and operating-system dictation, which can send audio to a vendor's cloud.

## Safe by default

- It is designed not to type into password fields, and it re-checks that the window and field are the ones you started in.
- It restores your clipboard afterward and keeps the temporary text out of clipboard history.
- Administrators can turn it off, allow only listed apps, lock the polish default, and set allow, warn or block for dictating during a recording.
- Dictating during a recording is not muted. The dictated span is marked and kept out of notes, Ask and search, and the user is told.
- Press-to-toggle is offered instead of holding a key.

## Compared with cloud dictation apps

| Question | A cloud dictation app | VaultScribe |
|---|---|---|
| Where is speech turned into text? | On the vendor's servers. Wispr Flow's published policy says it sends audio to its servers for processing. | On your own computer. |
| What happens to the audio? | Vendors offer settings that limit what they keep. The audio still leaves your machine to be processed. | Held briefly in memory, then discarded. Not written to disk. |
| Can you test it? | You rely on the vendor's description and contract. | Block the network with your own firewall and dictate. |
| Is it aware of matters? | Ask whether custom words can be limited to one matter. | Word lists can be tied to a matter, and time entries go only to matters you may see. |

Source: Wispr Consumer Data Usage Policy, https://www.wispr.ai/data-usage. Check the current version, as vendors change their terms. This describes categories of tools and one vendor's published policy. It is not a review of any product.

## Questions

**Does dictation send my audio to the cloud?** It is designed not to. Block the network with your own firewall and dictate to check.

**Where can I dictate?** Word, Outlook, your document management system, a browser text field or any text field. It is designed not to type into a password field.

**Does the polish step change what I said?** It checks that every number, date, amount, name and citation is unchanged, and types your raw words if the check fails.

**Does it work on a basic laptop?** Clean polish, which is rule-based, is designed for modest hardware. The styled modes need a more capable machine or the firm's own server.

**Which languages?** English (US) for the spoken commands. Other languages are not promised until tested.

## Where VaultScribe fits

Dictation is one part of a private AI workspace for law firms. Now accepting founding design partners: hello@vaultscribe.app

Related: https://vaultscribe.app/connectors-and-integrations.md