To remove filler words from dictation on a Mac, turn on Remove filler words in Whisperer's Settings. Every "um", "uh" and "er" is then stripped before the text is copied for you to paste. Fast Polish also fixes punctuation, casing and paragraph breaks, and optional list formatting turns spoken lists into bullets. It all runs on your Mac.
Everyone says "um" when they talk. That's fine in conversation and annoying in a Slack message.
How to turn it on#
- Open Whisperer's Settings.
- Find the Filler Words card.
- Turn on Remove filler words.
Filler words are now stripped from everything you dictate.
What gets removed#
Standalone fillers like um, uh, er, erm, ah and hmm.
Only whole words are removed. "Umbrella" stays "umbrella" and "ermine" stays "ermine."
What happens to your text, in order#
Filler removal is one step in a short chain. Each optional step can be switched on or off by itself.
- Transcription. Your chosen engine (Whisper by default) turns speech into raw text on your Mac.
- Dictionary corrections. Your personal dictionary fixes names and terms.
- Filler removal (optional).
- Fast Polish. Punctuation, casing and paragraph breaks at the pauses you actually took, using fast local rules.
- List formatting (optional). Spoken lists become numbered or bulleted lists.
- AI mode (optional). Rewrite, Grammar, Format, Translate and others, using the AI you chose on the LLM page. See rewriting dictation with AI.
- Copy. The text is copied and a "Copied ⌘V" toast appears. Press ⌘V to paste it.
List formatting#
Turn on Auto-format lists in Settings and Whisperer turns spoken lists into formatted ones, with no AI needed. It recognizes ordinals ("first", "second"), numbers ("one", "two") and phrases like "number one".
It tries hard not to turn ordinary sentences into lists. "I had two coffees" stays a sentence. If the rules miss a list, an optional AI-enhanced detection setting asks the language model to look for list structure.
Which settings to use when#
| Situation | Settings |
|---|---|
| Work email | Filler removal on, list formatting off |
| Notes and to-do lists | Filler removal on, list formatting on |
| Exact, word-for-word transcript | Filler removal off, no AI mode |
| Creative writing | Filler removal off, Creative AI mode |
Meetings too#
With Pro, meeting transcripts get the same treatment. Transcript polish takes the fillers out of a recorded call so the transcript reads cleanly, while the original audio is kept. See meeting notes.
Related: Rewrite dictation with AI, Dictation for Slack, Gmail and Notion. See pricing and all dictation features.