Does Parakeety work inside Scrivener on Mac?

Yes. Scrivener is a native macOS application; Parakeety pastes at the cursor in the main editor pane, in the synopsis cards on the corkboard, in scrivenings sessions, and in any other Scrivener text field including the document notes and project notes panels.

Can I dictate in Composition Mode (the distraction-free full-screen one)?

Yes. Composition Mode (Cmd+Option+F) is still a standard macOS text field underneath; Parakeety pastes there exactly the way it pastes into the editor. For a novel or long-form session, hold the section key, talk through the scene, release. The transcript lands inside the document you currently have open.

Should I dictate dialogue or only narration?

Both work. Dialogue benefits more, because the cadence of a spoken line maps better to dictation than a typed one does; you naturally hear the rhythm of the line as you speak it, which catches stilted phrasing earlier than typing does. Narration works too, with the caveat that you may want to read it back before the next scene for the parts that the speech model rendered ambiguously.

Does Parakeety send any of my manuscript anywhere?

No. Audio is captured to memory on the Mac, transcribed on the Apple Neural Engine, pasted into Scrivener and discarded. The manuscript stays in Scrivener, where you already keep it. The only outbound traffic Parakeety ever produces is a one-time speech-model download on first launch and periodic license checks; neither carries audio or text from your project.

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Dictating into Scrivener with Parakeety

Scrivener is the long-form writer's desk: a Binder of every scene, an editor for each one, an Inspector pinned to the side with notes and metadata. The whole shape is built around composing in passes. Push-to-talk dictation fits that shape because it speeds up the first pass, the spoken first draft, the place where most novelists, biographers and non-fiction writers are slowest. Parakeety pastes at the cursor wherever you are inside Scrivener; the audio stays on the Mac, which matters for unpublished work that has not yet been read by anyone.

Where dictation fits inside Scrivener

The surfaces inside Scrivener where dictation actually pays back:

The editor pane. The main text field for whichever scene you have open in the Binder. The single highest-payback place to dictate.
Composition Mode. The distraction-free full-screen view (Cmd+Option+F). Same text field underneath; ideal for session-based composing where you want the rest of the desktop hidden.
Synopsis cards. The short summary on each card on the virtual corkboard. Dictate the one-paragraph synopsis of a scene before you write it; the spoken version usually beats the typed version on clarity.
Document notes and project notes. The Inspector panels on the right. The place where you talk yourself through what a chapter needs to do.
Scrivenings sessions. Selecting multiple documents in the Binder gives you a single combined editor; dictation works the same way.

A worked example: drafting a scene

The scene you have outlined on the corkboard is two characters arguing in a hotel lobby. You know what you want to happen, you know what each character wants from the conversation, you just have to write it. In typed mode, the first draft of a thousand-word scene takes most novelists between twenty minutes and an hour, depending on how often they stop to fix the typed sentence rather than push through to the end. Dictated as a spoken pass:

Hold the section key. Speak the scene the way you would tell it to a friend across a kitchen table. Don't worry about the dialogue tags; the second pass adds those. Don't worry about the speech-model edge cases; the second pass fixes those. The whole scene comes out in seven or eight minutes, ragged in places, but a complete first draft of an argument that does what you wanted it to do. Tomorrow's session opens that draft in Composition Mode and rewrites it into something publishable.

Dictation does not replace revision. It just makes the first draft faster, which is the part most working writers find hardest to start.

Tips specific to Scrivener

Click into the editor first. The Binder, Inspector and the editor are all text-accepting. Make sure the cursor is in the editor before you start holding the key, or the words land in a synopsis card instead.
Composition Mode is the natural dictation mode. Distraction-free typography, the page fills the screen, no Inspector reminding you of all the things you have not done. Hold the section key and talk.
Snapshot before you dictate. Cmd+5 takes a snapshot of the current document. Take one before a long dictation session, in case you want to revert and start the pass over.
Speech models drop the occasional proper noun. Character names that are not standard English words sometimes come out wrong. A find-and-replace pass at the end of the session is faster than correcting them in flight.
Use the project-notes pane for the meta-talk. The "what is this scene supposed to do" muttering that helps you plan goes in project notes; dictate it the same way you dictate the scene itself.

Privacy for unpublished work

Unpublished manuscripts, embargoed non-fiction, ghostwriting under NDA, journalism work-in-progress: each has a category of writing you would rather not put through someone else's server. Cloud dictation services (and the built-in voice typing inside other apps) send your audio to a third party for transcription. Parakeety does not. The audio is captured on the Mac, transcribed locally on the Apple Neural Engine and discarded after the transcript pastes into Scrivener. The manuscript stays where you keep it.

The writers-side audience piece is Parakeety for writers and researchers.

FAQ

Does Parakeety work inside Scrivener on Mac?: Yes. Scrivener is a native macOS application; Parakeety pastes at the cursor in the main editor pane, in the synopsis cards on the corkboard, in scrivenings sessions, and in any other Scrivener text field including the document notes and project notes panels.
Can I dictate in Composition Mode (the distraction-free full-screen one)?: Yes. Composition Mode (Cmd+Option+F) is still a standard macOS text field underneath; Parakeety pastes there exactly the way it pastes into the editor. For a novel or long-form session, hold the section key, talk through the scene, release. The transcript lands inside the document you currently have open.
Should I dictate dialogue or only narration?: Both work. Dialogue benefits more, because the cadence of a spoken line maps better to dictation than a typed one does; you naturally hear the rhythm of the line as you speak it, which catches stilted phrasing earlier than typing does. Narration works too, with the caveat that you may want to read it back before the next scene for the parts that the speech model rendered ambiguously.
Does Parakeety send any of my manuscript anywhere?: No. Audio is captured to memory on the Mac, transcribed on the Apple Neural Engine, pasted into Scrivener and discarded. The manuscript stays in Scrivener, where you already keep it. The only outbound traffic Parakeety ever produces is a one-time speech-model download on first launch and periodic license checks; neither carries audio or text from your project.

Try it

Parakeety is a Mac menu-bar app. Hold the section key, talk, release; your words paste at the cursor in whichever app you were typing into, including the Scrivener editor in any mode. Audio never leaves the machine. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required. After that it is $30 once.

Try Parakeety free →