How to Use Transforms (Beta)

Highlight any text, press a Transform shortcut, and Flow rewrites it instantly using AI. Use built-in rules, write your own custom prompts, or set a transform to run automatically after every dictation.

What it is

Transforms applies AI-powered rewriting rules to any text you select. It works anywhere Flow works — highlight text, trigger the shortcut, and the selected text is replaced with the improved version.

You can also set a transform to run automatically after every dictation, so your text is polished before it's pasted.

When to use it

Use Transforms when you want to:

• Clean up rough dictation into polished, professional text.

• Apply consistent formatting or tone rules across your writing.

• Rewrite text using a custom prompt without leaving your current app.

• Automatically polish every dictation without any extra steps.

How it works in Flow

Overview

Open the Transforms tab in Flow settings to get started. The demo editor comes pre-filled with sample text — highlight any part and press the Transform shortcut to see it in action. When you're ready, click Turn on Transforms at the end of the setup flow to enable shortcuts everywhere.

Key behaviors

• Opt-in toggle: A toggle at the top of the Transforms settings page enables or disables all Transforms functionality. Disabling it grays out remaining settings and resets any associated keyboard shortcuts.

• Shortcut activation: Transform shortcuts (Opt+1, Opt+2, Opt+O, and others) are not registered until you first interact with Transforms — by visiting the Transforms tab, clicking Try it out, or toggling Transforms on. Until then, these key combinations work normally for typing special characters on international keyboards.

• Auto-polish after dictation: A picker in the Flow status bubble runs a chosen transform automatically every time you finish dictating, before the text is pasted. Click the circle to cycle through options, or click the caret to open a dropdown. Your choice persists across app restarts.

• Custom transform prompts: Create custom prompts with their own names, instructions, and assigned shortcuts. Custom prompt instructions are limited to 500 characters. Saved custom prompts also appear in the auto-polish picker, and settings sync automatically across your devices.

• Configuration modal: Each Transform shortcut has its own modal where you can assign a shortcut, name the transform, toggle default rules, add custom prompts, and preview changes side by side. A transform is only saved when both a prompt and a shortcut are set.

• Prompt Engineer: A built-in transform that rewrites your text as a well-structured AI prompt — useful for turning a rough idea into a precise instruction for any AI tool.

• Writing samples: Each prompt has its own set of writing samples, used only when that prompt runs. Manage them inside the Custom Prompt and Prompt Engineer configuration modals. Renaming a prompt carries its samples over; deleting or resetting a prompt removes them. Samples for the default polish prompt are always preserved.

• Auto-save: Changes to a transform's name save automatically a couple of seconds after you stop typing. There are no manual Save or Cancel buttons.

• Reset button: Each configuration modal includes a Reset button to restore that transform's settings to their defaults.

• View Diff: After applying a transform, press the Transform view changes hotkey to toggle the diff viewer and see exactly what was rewritten. The default is Opt+O on Mac and Win+Alt+O on Windows. Customize it under Transform view changes in your keyboard shortcut settings.

• Auto insert transforms: A toggle on the Polish "How it works" settings page controls whether transformed text replaces your original text or appears as a diff in a new window. Only visible to users with Scratchpad enabled. During the Transforms onboarding flow, auto-insert is temporarily enabled and the toggle is hidden — your original setting is restored once onboarding is complete.

• Transform Suggestions in Scratchpad: Inside the Scratchpad, Flow offers six built-in transform suggestions ranked by AI based on relevance to your content. There are three tone options — More concise, More professional, and More casual — and three structural options: Turn to list, Turn to table, and Polish. They appear as chips at the top of the editor — an Original chip plus one chip per variant. Click any chip to preview, then click Keep to commit it as a new version. Editing the content regenerates fresh suggestions automatically.

Notifications

Flow shows status notifications as you use Transforms:

• Transformed! The transform was applied successfully.

• Congrats, you did your first transform! A celebratory notification after your first transform outside the Flow app. It includes a Customize transforms button that opens your Transforms settings. Shown only for your first few transforms.

• Transformed text copied to clipboard: The text field was not editable, so the result was copied instead. Paste with Cmd+V (Mac) or Ctrl+V (Windows).

• Select text to apply a transform: You pressed a Transform shortcut without selecting any text. The first 3 times, Flow shows a tip with the specific shortcut you pressed. After that, a shorter reminder appears.

• Want to Transform this? A nudge after dictation reminding you that you can transform the result. Flow shows your assigned shortcut and displays this up to 20 times. Suppressed when auto-polish after dictation is active.

• Polishing X words… / [name]ing…: Shown in the status bubble while an auto-polish transform runs after dictation. The label reflects the prompt name when available (e.g., "Summarizing…"); otherwise it defaults to "Polishing…".

• Too short to transform: The selected text was too short for a transform to run.

• Transform timed out: The request took too long. Try again in a moment. During auto-polish, your original dictated text is pasted instead.

• Transform returned no text: Something went wrong and no result was produced. Try again.

• Transform cancelled: You cancelled the transform before it completed.

• Transform doesn't work while dictating: Wait until dictation finishes before triggering a transform.

• Couldn't detect a text box: Flow couldn't find a text box and had no recent text from your clipboard or a recent dictation. Select your text manually and try again.

Examples

FAQs

Limitations and notes

• Transforms is currently in beta and available on Mac and Windows only.

• Transform shortcuts (Opt+1, Opt+2, Opt+O, and others) are only registered after you first visit the Transforms tab, click Try it out, or toggle Transforms on.

• Disabling the Opt-in toggle resets any keyboard shortcuts assigned to Transforms.

• Custom transform configurations sync automatically across all your devices.

• Custom prompt instructions are limited to 500 characters.

• Transforms cannot be triggered while dictation is active — wait until dictation finishes first.

• A transform is not saved unless both a prompt and a keyboard shortcut are configured. Closing the modal without setting a shortcut discards the transform.

• When auto-polish after dictation is active, the post-dictation transform nudge is suppressed.

• Writing samples are scoped to the prompt they were created under. Deleting or resetting a custom prompt removes its samples. Samples for the default polish prompt are always preserved.

• The Auto insert transforms toggle is only visible to users with Scratchpad enabled. It is hidden during the Transforms onboarding flow and reappears once onboarding is complete.

• Scratchpad transform suggestions are limited to six fixed options (More concise, More professional, More casual, Turn to list, Turn to table, Polish), ranked by AI based on relevance to your content.