# Spoken layout commands

Say "new paragraph" or "bullet point" and Blabb lays the text out for you. Punctuation you never have to say.

Punctuation is added for you. Layout is not — you have to ask for it, out loud, in the middle of
the sentence you are speaking.

## The commands

| Say | You get |
| --- | --- |
| "new line" | A line break. The next words start on the line below. |
| "new paragraph" | A blank line, then a new paragraph. |
| "bullet point" | A list item starting with a plain hyphen. |
| A numbered point | A list item starting with a numeral and a full stop. |
| "next point" | The next item in the list you already started. |

Bullets come out as a plain hyphen — `- like this`. Numbered items come out as a numeral and a full
stop — `1. like this`. There is no rich formatting involved, so the result behaves the same in an
email, a chat box or a text editor.

## Punctuation is automatic, but you can still ask

You do not have to say "comma" or "full stop" — punctuation arrives from the shape of your speech.
People coming from older dictation software usually spend a day or two unlearning the habit.

If you do want a particular mark, saying it works: question mark, exclamation mark, colon,
semicolon, dash, quotes, brackets, at sign, hashtag, ampersand, percent sign. Those and the rules
for numbers are covered in
[Numbers, symbols and addresses](/docs/cleanup-styles/numbers-and-symbols/).

## Which styles understand them

Layout commands work in **Fix typos**, **Clear**, **Professional** and **Friendly**.

Two styles do not act on them. **Original** runs no cleanup model at all, so it types exactly what
you said, including the words "new paragraph" — which is the whole point of it: nothing between the
transcript and your cursor. **Screen match** is built to correct your words against what is on
screen and is deliberately told not to introduce formatting you did not dictate, so layout commands
are not part of what it does. See [Cleanup styles](/docs/cleanup-styles/overview/).

## A worked example

Say this, in one breath, at normal speed:

> "Three things to check before Friday new paragraph bullet point the invoice from Tuesday next
> point the signed copy of the lease next point the meeting room booking"

You get a line of text, a blank line, and three hyphenated items underneath it. You never said
"comma", "full stop" or "hyphen".

## See also

- [Cleanup styles](/docs/cleanup-styles/overview/) — which style is doing the work.
- [How to speak](/docs/accuracy/how-to-speak/) — pace, pauses and what makes recognition worse.