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New to Alter? This guide covers the three main ways to open and use Alter on your Mac.

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Three Ways to Open Alter

The Notch

Hover over your Mac’s camera notch

Keyboard Shortcut

Press Alt + Space (or your custom hotkey)

Voice Command

Hold Fn key and speak

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The Notch

The easiest way to open Alter is to hover your mouse over the camera notch at the top of your screen.
Open Alter by hovering over the notch
External monitors: On an external screen, you can hover anywhere on the top bar except directly on the mic icon.

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Hotkey - Alter Quick Menu

Press your keyboard shortcut to open Alter instantly from any app.
1

Use the default shortcut

Press Alt + Space to open the quick menu
2

Or use your custom hotkey

If you’ve changed it in settings, use your configured combination
Customize your shortcut: Go to Settings > General > Quick Access to change the hotkey to something else.

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Voice Command

Control Alter hands-free using your voice.
Perfect for quick commands and questions:
  1. Hold the mic icon or press and hold your voice hotkey (default: Fn)
  2. Speak your prompt naturally
  3. Release to send immediately
Hold to speak demonstration
The currently active window is automatically selected as context when you use speech-to-prompt.
Best for longer text input:
  1. Click once on the mic icon to start recording
  2. Speak your content
  3. Click again to stop and process
Your transcript appears in the context section of Alter, ready to be sent as a prompt or edited.
Configure voice settings: Go to Settings > Dictation > Shortcut to customize your voice hotkey.

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Mouse Interaction

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Text Selection

Select any text on your Mac to instantly invoke the Alter Floating Menu.

Floating Menu Features

  • Shows system Alter actions
  • Favorite actions appear at the top
  • Quick access to common operations

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Right-Click Menu

Right-click on any file or folder and select Add to Alter to send it as context.
1

Find your file

Locate the file or folder in Finder
2

Right-click

Open the context menu
3

Select 'Add to Alter'

The file appears in your context section

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What’s Next?

Now that you know how to open Alter, explore these guides:

Core Features

Discover AppSense, Follow Mode, Workspaces, and Actions

The Alter Window

Learn about the Hub and Quick Panel interfaces