What actually happens
When you finish dictating, OpenWhispr:- Copies the finished text to your clipboard.
- Sends the paste keystroke to whichever window has focus.
- Puts your previous clipboard contents back a moment later.
- Your clipboard is borrowed, not taken. It’s restored afterwards — unless it changed in the meantime, in which case OpenWhispr leaves the newer contents alone rather than overwriting something you copied.
- Focus decides everything. The text lands wherever the cursor is when dictation finishes. Click into the target field before you stop speaking, not after.
The two settings
Both are under Settings → Preferences under App, in the Clipboard group:
Turn automatic pasting off and OpenWhispr becomes copy-only: dictate, then paste
where you like. Some people prefer that in apps where they want to review before
committing.
What each platform needs
When the paste doesn’t land
Nothing appears, but the text is in my history
Nothing appears, but the text is in my history
The transcription worked and the paste didn’t. Press
Cmd/Ctrl+V — the text is on your clipboard,
which is the deliberate fallback for every failure in this path. Then see
the text doesn’t paste for the cause.
It pasted into the wrong window
It pasted into the wrong window
Whatever had focus when dictation ended received the text. This most often
happens when a notification or another app steals focus mid-dictation.
It pasted twice
It pasted twice
A known issue with a specific cause on Windows rather than something about
the app you were in. The text pasted
twice has it.
My terminal ignored it or pasted something strange
My terminal ignored it or pasted something strange
Terminals use a different paste shortcut, and OpenWhispr switches to it when
it recognises one. Editors, IDEs and
terminals covers what it recognises and
what to do when yours isn’t on the list.
The app answered me instead of typing
The app answered me instead of typing
That’s the voice agent, not the paste path. It answers instead of
typing explains the trigger and how
to turn it off.