Punctuation in voice input for CRM and task trackers

Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.

Potok (potok.now) adds punctuation and capital letters automatically: you do not need to say “zapyataya” (comma) or “tochka” (period). Windows and macOS recognize such commands in Russian, but Apple does not state automatic punctuation without spoken words for Russian. In some CRMs and trackers, for example Todoist, voice input is tied to their own hotkeys, including Ctrl+Space. Through Potok you get about 900 characters per minute.

CRMs and task trackers differ in how they handle voice input, and especially punctuation in it: in some dictation exists and is well described, in others it is missing altogether, and in others the hotkey is already taken by a different command. Here is what is confirmed for each service and what Potok does.

Where people most often go wrong with punctuation and hotkeys

• They think that for Potok you have to say “zapyataya” (comma) or “tochka” (period). You do not: it places punctuation and capital letters itself.
• They confuse manual punctuation commands with automatic punctuation without them. For Russian, both systems, Windows and macOS, confirm manual commands, but for automatic punctuation without spoken words the data differ: in Windows the help has no language restriction, while Apple's official list does not include Russian.
• They do not check that in Todoist voice input is tied to its own hotkeys: Ctrl+Space on Windows (Option+Space on Mac) globally opens quick task add and does not record voice. This is the same combination that many dictation apps use by default. The separate hotkey for Ramble voice input in Todoist is Alt+Space on Windows and Shift+Option+Space on Mac.
• They take any voice feature for dictation of text into fields: Trello, for example, has only Siri capture through the Shortcuts app on iOS, which creates a card in the Inbox by voice and is not dictation of text into card fields.
• They consider transcription of calls (as in Megaplan) to be dictation of text into fields. These are different things: AI there analyzes the recording of a conversation, and does not turn dictated text into the content of a field.
• They assume that because Ctrl+Space is taken in one service, it is taken everywhere. In Jira, for example, the official list of hotkeys does not name such a combination at all, so there is no conflict there.

A separate breakdown of dictation is on the page voice input in Bitrix24.

Check before you send

1. Determine the dictation method: built into the app (if there is one), built into Windows or macOS, or a separate app for voice input.
2. If it is the built-in dictation of Windows or macOS, open the official table of punctuation commands for your language. For Russian, such commands are documented in both systems.
3. If you dictate on a Mac in Russian without saying punctuation commands, proofread the text separately: Apple's official list of languages with automatic punctuation does not include Russian.
4. Check whether the hotkeys of your dictation app are taken inside the service itself. For example, in Todoist Ctrl+Space on Windows and Option+Space on Mac open quick task add, not voice recording.
5. If you dictate through Potok, there is no need to check punctuation commands separately: it places the marks itself.

Where Potok is unnecessary

Punctuation is something you can stop thinking about with Potok: it places marks and capital letters itself, regardless of which CRM or tracker is open.

Potok is a cloud service, with recognition on servers in Russia; it does not work without the internet. It has no voice commands at all, neither for punctuation nor for anything else; it only turns speech into text. It has no offline mode and no phone app: it is a desktop program for Windows, macOS and Linux.

Frequently asked questions

Built-in dictation and Potok

Primary sources: support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com · www.apple.com