Steno Keyboard

Steno Keyboard is a stenographic keyboard for iPad. Instead of one key per letter, you press several keys at once and lift. A dictionary translates that chord into a word, a phrase, or punctuation. It is how court reporters and captioners write at speaking speed.

LIFT TO SEND

On iPad there is room for the whole key bank at proper proportions, so you can write real chords with both hands. Lift to send is the default: strike the chord, lift your fingers, and the word appears. No separate key to press for every stroke.

BUILT FOR HANDS, NOT THUMBS

The board measures your reach and sizes the keys to your hands. Multi key finger zones let one finger cover two keys the way a steno machine does. The asterisk and the final D and Z keys can be widened like a real board, and the vowels can sit under the asterisk where a machine puts them.

YOUR DICTIONARIES

Import Plover format JSON, or RTF/CRE files from most CAT software. Dictionaries are priority ordered, so a personal dictionary can override a general one. Large dictionaries are supported.

LOOKUP AND LEARNING

Look up how any word is written. Read a plain English explanation of what an entry's formatting codes actually do, rather than decoding them yourself. Define a word you just wrote without leaving what you were doing. Multi stroke phrases translate correctly, with undo.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN

Nothing you type leaves your device. No account, no analytics, no server of ours. Translation happens locally.

REQUIRES A DICTIONARY

This is a custom keyboard and it needs a steno dictionary to do anything. The app can download a free starter dictionary, or you can import your own.

Also available: Steno Keyboard Pocket, a smaller iPhone version for quick writing on a phone.