Rewrite text with Transforms and custom prompts
Last updated: November 12, 2026
Available on: Mac and Windows.
Use Transforms to polish drafts, restructure text or apply custom instructions where you write. On desktop, base Polish maintains your tone; custom prompts can change it.
Turn on Transforms
Desktop Transforms is in Beta. Its shortcuts activate after you open Transforms, select Try it out or turn Opt in on. Opt in starts on by default.
Dictation setup is required to access Transforms. If you chose Notetaker-only onboarding, finish dictation setup on that device to unlock the tab.
Open the Transforms tab in Flow's Hub.
Select Try it out.
Highlight the sample email text.
Press the shortcut shown: your current Polish binding, or the platform default below.
Select Turn on Transforms after the demo text is replaced to finish setup with default instructions.
Rewrite text on desktop
Desktop transforms accept 1–3,000 words. With no selection, Flow uses readable text-box contents; if empty, it can use your last dictation for 60 seconds. Flow works in most text fields where it can detect a selection; some custom editors are unsupported.
Finish dictation before transforming; dictation cannot start during a transform. Additional transform requests are skipped while one runs. Esc cancels a running transform; “Polish cancelled” may appear.
Warning: Plain-text URLs become clickable links; Markdown links and HTML anchors are not always preserved, so review them before using the result. Slack nested lists can lose formatting during a rewrite.
Select the text you want to rewrite in another app.
Press the transform's shortcut.
The rewrite replaces your selection. After setup, turning auto-paste off opens it in Scratchpad instead, when Scratchpad is enabled. Without Scratchpad or before setup is complete, Flow always pastes automatically.
These are the default shortcuts. Prompt Engineer turns unstructured spoken thoughts into a structured AI prompt.
Action | Mac | Windows |
Polish | Opt+1 | Win+Alt+1 |
Prompt Engineer | Opt+2 | Win+Alt+2 |
Transform view changes | Opt+O | Win+Alt+O |
Review, retry or undo
After a changed rewrite is pasted, select Done. See changes in the Flow Bar or use Transform view changes to compare original and rewritten text. “Your text looks good!” means nothing changed and nothing was pasted.
Retry polish: reruns the transform on your original text.
Re-transform: Prompt Engineer, Turn to list, Translate to English and Empathize use the already-transformed result. Translate to English is unavailable on iOS.
Undo: restores only the most recent transform.
Copy and feedback: Copy copies the rewrite; clicking the same thumbs-up/down rating again clears it.
Retry and re-transform replace the previous rewrite. The header offers Accept edits for an automatically suggested rewrite; otherwise, Configure Polish before setup is complete and when Transforms is allowed, or Undo. Accept edits replaces the pasted original; Configure Polish opens Transforms.
Create a custom transform
Polish and Prompt Engineer appear initially. You can add eight custom prompts; their cards appear after saving. Creation uses the first unconfigured slot, and Create New and Create your own disappear when all eight custom slots are filled.
Important: A custom transform needs a name, prompt and shortcut to save. There are no Save or Cancel buttons. Name and prompt edits autosave after typing; shortcut edits save immediately. Closing with required fields missing discards the incomplete changes.
Select Create New or Create your own on Transforms, or reopen a saved card.
Name the transform.
Click its shortcut field.
Hold the modifier (Opt, Cmd, Ctrl, Shift or Win) down for the whole recording.
Press and release the second key, then release the modifier last.
Write instructions in Customize prompt.
Test the shortcut on selected text in another app.
Use at most three keys, including a modifier or eligible mouse button. Duplicate bindings, OS-reserved combinations and both sides of the same modifier are rejected with an inline error; left/right clicks cannot be bindings. Recording ends as soon as a key is released, and a modifier on its own is an accepted binding, so releasing the modifier early can save just that modifier and still show “Shortcut saved”. If the card lists only the modifier, record it again in the order above.
The first custom slot suggests Opt+3 on Mac or Win+Alt+3 on Windows, but does not assign it automatically; later slots have no default. Changing a shortcut in a transform card replaces that action's existing bindings.
Change a shortcut
Change Polish and Prompt Engineer shortcuts from their Transforms cards. For comparisons, use the to view changes pill or Settings → Shortcuts → Transform view changes. The Transform row in Settings links to Transforms rather than offering Polish or Prompt Engineer fields.
“Shortcut saved” confirms assignment. Mouse-button shortcuts save on click. ×, Escape or an outside click cancels recording without changing the binding; Escape leaves the configuration window open.
In Settings → Shortcuts, + adds bindings, up to four per action. Optional actions, including Transform view changes, can have their last binding removed; required actions must keep one. Polish and Prompt Engineer cards have one field, with no + or Remove shortcut.
Finish recording before using + or Reset to default in the shortcuts dialog; a success message confirms a reset.
Customize base Polish
Open the Polish card. Its five default-on rules toggle independently: Make more concise, Reword for clarity, Reorder for readability, Add structure for readability and Maintain your tone.
Under Customize your Polish prompt, add nonempty, unique rules; there is no five-rule or 50-word cap. Add or Enter adds a rule, Shift+Enter inserts a newline, and Cancel clears the draft. Each saved rule has an on/off switch and delete control; changes autosave.
An exact duplicate, ignoring surrounding spaces, shows “A custom rule with this text already exists”. After changing instructions, select See Updates to refresh the example. Retry if it shows “Couldn't regenerate the example. Try again.” or “There was an error. Please try again”.
Add writing samples
Samples are optional: up to five per prompt, 50–500 words each; only the active prompt's samples are used. For custom transforms, samples unlock after all required fields are set. Polish offers Writing Examples below custom rules; Prompt Engineer offers samples without that prerequisite. Writing samples are unavailable on iOS.
Renaming preserves samples. Add, edit and delete changes save immediately; “Failed to sync, try again” means the change remains saved locally.
Custom prompts and samples sync across your devices unless Privacy Mode or the data-sharing opt-out keeps them local; enterprise zero data retention keeps samples on-device. Enterprise sharing also depends on organization settings.
If a rewrite does not appear
If nothing happens, check the required fields; Prompt Engineer needs a prompt and shortcut. Retry edits showing “Failed to save, try again” or “Failed to save prompt, try again” before testing.
Check Opt in and organization access if no error appears. Transforms can be briefly unavailable while organization settings load after sign-in or launch.
Message | Next action |
“Oops, too long to polish” / “Try again with under 3000 words” | Select a shorter passage and retry; over-limit text is not rewritten. |
“Select text to apply a transform” or the early prompt “Hey, select text first!” | Flow found no usable text; highlight text and press the shortcut again. |
“Couldn't detect text in your text box” | Flow found no readable field text or recent dictation; click into the text box and retry. |
“Polish mode servers are busy”, “Transform timed out” or “Transform returned no text” | Retry the transform manually. |
If the field is not editable or pasting does not succeed, Flow saves the rewrite to your clipboard. With auto-paste off and Scratchpad enabled, it opens there; otherwise, “Flow can't paste right now. Text saved to clipboard” appears. Paste the clipboard text into an editable field.
Note: Auto Apply After Dictation runs the chosen transform before pasting, only for dictation with normal formatting; raw-transcript fallbacks and command-mode dictations paste without a transform. If text length, errors, missing configuration or disabled Transforms prevent it, Flow pastes the original dictation instead. Switching accounts during the operation cancels this fallback paste.
Reset or turn off Transforms
Warning: Reset in a custom transform clears its name, prompt, shortcut and writing samples; deleting a prompt also removes its samples. Reset to defaults permanently removes all custom transforms and their samples; this cannot be undone. Reset in base Polish deletes custom rules and restores its rule toggles and default shortcut without changing other transforms.
Reset in Prompt Engineer restores its default prompt and shortcut, keeping its writing samples.
Select Reset to defaults on Transforms only to reset all transforms.
Confirm with Yes, or select Cancel to keep your configuration.
“Settings reset” confirms completion. Full reset restores built-in transforms and only the Polish and Prompt Engineer default transform shortcuts; other transform bindings are removed. Prompt Engineer and default Polish samples, including older unassigned samples, survive. Auto Apply and its selected transform stay unchanged.
Important: Opt in is separate from Auto Apply. Turning it off removes all transform and comparison shortcuts, disables settings controls and hides the wand, without deleting prompts or samples. Turning it back on restores only Polish, Prompt Engineer and comparison defaults; reassign all other shortcuts and any customized bindings.
If your organization turns Transforms off
Transforms is on by default, and only admins can change it in Organization settings at admin.wisprflow.ai; non-admins can see the setting. Turning it off requires confirmation, does not delete saved settings or content, and overrides your personal settings.
Running Polish is blocked (a generic error on iOS), and transform suggestions stop. Desktop hides the Transforms page, controls, wand, picker, notifications, banners and shortcut entry points.
Saved Polish bindings return when an admin re-enables Transforms, only on keys that are still free; reassigned bindings are not overwritten. Bindings you cleared yourself stay cleared.
A rewrite still preparing or processing is cancelled: its text and instructions are removed from the saved record, and no transformed text is pasted or saved to History. For Auto Apply, the original dictation is pasted instead, subject to the account-switch restriction above. A paste already underway can finish.
If the policy-change paste fails, Flow copies the original text to your clipboard and shows “Flow can't paste right now. Text saved to clipboard”; paste it manually. This policy-change path does not open Scratchpad.
Transform comparisons and context menus close; automatic dictation-cleanup comparisons remain available. Dictation, Ask Anything and Notetaker are unaffected.
Still stuck?
Contact support through Report an issue if a complete, saved transform does nothing with text selected. Include your platform, the target app, the shortcut and the prompt, plus an example if the result consistently ignores your rule, and attach screenshots or recordings.