Typing after hand surgery
Back at work before the hand is. One key, and the good hand does it.
- Works one-handed
- 99%+ accurate
- Fine with a splint on
Free to try. No card. Monthly after that, cancel any time.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14 or later · Windows 11
The instructions you came home with are the ones that matter. What they do not cover is the bit you are worried about: there is a job waiting, and you have one hand.
So people type one-handed. Three or four times slower, and that is where the trouble starts. When a short reply takes five minutes, the operated hand starts helping.
Do you have to type at all?
Step one
Hold one key
Put it on the good side. One key, no grip, nothing the splinted hand does.
Step two
Talk normally
No punctuation out loud. No pausing between sentences. No waiting.
Step three
Let go
Finished text lands where your cursor was. No hunting for Shift one-handed.
Why the cleanup matters more right now
Fixing dictated text is normally annoying. One-handed it is the whole cost of it.
- Every full stop is a reach
- Every capital is a Shift you cannot hold
- Selecting a word to fix needs the hand you are resting
Here it arrives punctuated, capitalised and spelled right. Nothing waits at the end.
No Shift key
Capitals arrive on their own. Nothing to hold down while reaching for a letter.
No symbol row
Full stops, commas and question marks land in place. The awkward keys stop being part of writing.
No corrections
Names you use are spelled right, so there is nothing to go back and select.
It types where your cursor is
Click where the words go, hold the key, talk. Nothing to open, nothing to copy after.
To hr@northgate.co
Subject Phased return
Hi Ann — I’m back on email from Monday, mornings only for the first two weeks. Happy to join the Tuesday call.
Back online. Slow on the keyboard this week, so ping me rather than emailing.
Three things missed while I was off: the supplier renewal, the March forecast, and Dan’s handover.
If you only need it for a few weeks
Then use it for a few weeks. It is free to try without a card, and the monthly plan cancels whenever you want. Nothing here is built to make it awkward to walk away.
Work that cannot leave your machine
Nothing you dictate is stored or used for training. If the work cannot leave the building at all, it can run entirely on your own computer instead — offline dictation has the detail.
Works in every app you already use
It types at your cursor, the same as a keyboard does. If there is a text box, it works.
Plus Outlook, Word, Teams and every other app on your Mac or PC.
Setup takes two minutes
- Download, allow the microphone, pick your key
- No voice training and nothing to read aloud first
- Free to try, every feature, no card
Free to try, no card. A first week back without the keyboard.
Read next
Carpal tunnel
If a release is what you have had done, or what you are still deciding about.
Hand pain
The short version, whatever is causing it.
Offline dictation
Dictating with the wifi off.
Compared with the other apps
While one hand is out, setup cost matters more than feature count. That is most of the difference between these.
Questions
When can I start typing again after hand surgery?
Whenever your surgeon or hand therapist says, and not before. A carpal tunnel release, a trigger finger, a fracture and a tendon repair are not the same recovery, so anyone publishing a single number is guessing. This page is about the other question: how to work while you wait.
Can I dictate with one hand?
Yes. The whole thing is one key, held while you talk. Put it on your good hand and the operated one never comes into it.
Can I use it with a splint or a cast on?
Yes. You are pressing a single key, not gripping anything. If the splinted hand is out of action, move the key to the other side of the keyboard.
Is one-handed typing really a problem?
It is slow, and slow is what causes the trouble. When a reply takes four times as long, the operated hand starts creeping back in to help, usually before it should. Talking removes the reason to.
I only need this for a few weeks. Is that worth it?
It is free to try with no card. After that there is a monthly plan you can cancel when your hand is working again.
Do I have to say the punctuation?
No. Full stops, commas, question marks and capitals come from the way you talk. You never go back for the symbol keys, which matters when going back means typing one-handed.
Will it change my words?
It cleans up, it does not rewrite. The ums come out, punctuation goes in, everything else stays as you said it. One switch gives you the raw transcript.
Will it spell names right?
Add them to your vocabulary once and they come out right from then on. Corrections are the most annoying typing there is when you only have one hand available.
Does it work in the apps I use?
It types where your cursor is, so anything with a text box works. Outlook, Word, Gmail, Teams, Slack, your browser, whatever internal system you live in.
Is it better than the dictation already on my computer?
They leave every um in and never learn your words, so you fix it at the keyboard — and right now the keyboard is the problem. For the odd sentence they are fine and they are free.
Can I dictate things that have to stay private?
Yes. It can run entirely on your own computer with the wifi off. It works best on a machine with room to spare.
Do I have to train it on my voice?
No. Install it, pick your key, and talk. Two minutes, which is what you want when you are trying to clear an inbox.
Will this slow my recovery or speed it up?
That is not a claim we are going to make. It is a way to write without using your hands. Whether that is useful during your recovery is a question for the person who operated on you.
Is any of this medical advice?
No. It is a way to write with your voice instead of your hands. Nothing on this page replaces your surgeon or your hand therapist.
Free to try, no card. Monthly after that, cancelled when your hand is ready.