# Cleanup styles

The six cleanup styles, what each one is allowed to change, and how to choose the right amount of freedom.

A cleanup style decides how much freedom the AI has to change what you said. It runs after
speech recognition, on the transcript, on your PC — no audio and no text leaves the machine.

Choose it in Settings under **Writing style → Cleanup style**.

## The six styles

These are the app's own descriptions, in the order they appear in the picker.

| Style | What Blabb says it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Original** | "Keep exactly what you said" |
| **Fix typos** | "Correct spelling and grammar only" |
| **Clear** | "Tighten wording, remove filler" |
| **Professional** | "Polished, formal wording" |
| **Friendly** | "Warm, conversational tone" |
| **Screen match** | "Correct using text visible on your screen" |

**Original is the default, and it runs no cleanup model at all.** The transcript is typed as
recognised. That makes it the fastest style by a wide margin — there is nothing running between
recognition and typing — and it is the only style that can never change a word you said.

## The trade you are making

The further down that list you go, the more freedom the model has, and the more you should read
the result before you send it.

**Fix typos** is the smallest step away from Original. It repairs spelling and grammar and leaves
your wording where it is. Most people who want any cleanup at all want this one.

**Clear** is for thinking out loud. Speak a rambling paragraph, get back a tight one. It removes
filler and repetition, which means it removes words you actually said.

**Professional** and **Friendly** move the register in opposite directions — one towards something
you would send a client, one towards something you would send a colleague. Both rewrite more than
the styles above them. Read the output until you trust it.

**Screen match** reads the text visible in the window you are dictating into and uses it to correct
what you said. Dictating a product code into a form, or a variable name into an editor, lands
correctly because the right spelling is already on screen.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> If the exact words matter — a quotation, a dose, a figure, a name — use **Original** or
> **Fix typos**. A style that is allowed to improve your wording is allowed to change your meaning.

## Screen match and remote desktop

Screen match reads the active window by capturing it and recognising the text in the picture, so a
remote session is not automatically a problem. What does stop it is an environment where that
capture is unavailable or comes back empty — some locked-down and virtualised desktops. When there
is nothing to read, Blabb does not fail: it cleans up your words without the screen context, which
lands you close to Fix typos. See [Remote desktop](/docs/common-issues/remote-desktop/).

## What every style shares

- **Punctuation is automatic.** You do not have to say "comma" or "full stop" — though saying a
  specific mark does work when you mean it.
- **Layout is not.** You ask for it out loud — see
  [Spoken layout commands](/docs/cleanup-styles/spoken-layout/).
- **You can take words back.** "Scratch that" and its relatives drop what you just said — see
  [Correcting yourself as you speak](/docs/cleanup-styles/spoken-corrections/).
- **Your saved words are applied first.** A word you taught Blabb is corrected on the transcript
  before any cleanup style sees it, and a rewrite that changes one is treated as having gone wrong
  and discarded. See [Teach Blabb your words](/docs/cleanup-styles/saved-words/).
- **Medical and legal vocabulary sits on top.** The specialist vocabularies apply to every style,
  including Original, because they are a vocabulary and not a style. See
  [Medical and legal](/docs/editions/overview/).

## Seeing what cleanup did

Every dictation is kept in History with both versions side by side: **Final text** (what was
typed), **Original words** (the raw transcription), and **What changed** between them. If you are
deciding whether a style is too free with your words, that comparison is the place to settle it —
see [History](/docs/get-started/history/).

## Next

- [Spoken layout commands](/docs/cleanup-styles/spoken-layout/) — line breaks, paragraphs and lists.
- [Picking a style automatically](/docs/cleanup-styles/auto-select-per-app/) — let Blabb choose per app.
- [Correcting yourself as you speak](/docs/cleanup-styles/spoken-corrections/) — say "scratch that" and keep going.
- [What affects speed](/docs/performance/what-affects-speed/) — style is the biggest lever you have.