Rewrite text with Transforms and custom prompts

Transforms rewrite selected text in place: polish a draft, change its tone, restructure it, or apply your own instructions. Desktop selections must contain 1–1,000 words. Flow works in most text fields where it can detect a selection; some custom editors are unsupported.

Turn on Transforms

1. Open the Transforms tab in Flow's Hub.

2. Select Try it out.

3. Highlight the sample email text and press Opt+1 on Mac or Win+Alt+1 on Windows.

4. Select Turn on Transforms after the demo succeeds.

Shortcuts do not register until you visit the tab, try the demo and turn Transforms on, so international keyboard characters such as ñ and ö remain usable before then.

If you chose Notetaker-only onboarding, finish dictation setup on that device to unlock the tab.

Use and change shortcuts

Select text, then press the shortcut. An over-limit selection produces a notification instead of a rewrite.

Change Polish and Prompt Engineer bindings from their cards on the Transforms page; change View Diff from the page's to view changes shortcut pill or Settings → Keyboard shortcuts.

Click a shortcut field, press your combination and release the keys to save; mouse-button shortcuts save on click. To cancel recording without changing a binding, use ×, Escape or click outside the field — Escape stops recording but leaves the configuration window open. Use + to add another shortcut; Remove shortcut appears for a binding only when it is not that action's only one.

Apply a transform automatically after dictation

Auto Apply After Dictation runs a transform on your dictated text as soon as the dictation finishes. In the Hub under Transforms, open the Polish settings, turn the toggle on, then choose the transform from the picker beside it — the picker stays disabled until Auto Apply is on. The Hub row and the Flow Bar wand menu offer the same options and stay in sync, so changing one updates the other.

Create a custom transform

The page has a separate base Polish card and nine prompt slots, including Prompt Engineer. Create your own appears when fewer than nine slots are configured.

1. Select Create New or Create your own, or open an existing card to edit it.

2. Name the prompt, such as “Make Formal.”

3. Write the instructions in Customize prompt.

4. Assign a shortcut and optionally add writing samples.

5. Test the shortcut on selected text in another app.

Describe one task precisely: “Rewrite this as a professional client email” is clearer than “Make it better.” Specify the output format and constraints, such as “Use one paragraph” or “Keep technical terms unchanged.” Use separate transforms for unrelated tasks.

Customize base Polish

The base card has five independently toggleable cleanup rules and accepts up to five custom instructions, at most 50 words each; duplicate instructions produce an error. The additional Pro rules Clarify main point and Refine phrasing for impact are off by default.

Add writing samples

Each prompt accepts up to five samples, 50–500 words each, and only the active prompt's samples are used. Renaming a prompt preserves its samples; deleting or resetting one removes them. Default Polish samples are preserved.

Custom prompts and samples sync across your devices unless Privacy Mode or the data-sharing opt-out keeps them local, and enterprise zero data retention keeps samples on-device. See data-sharing settings.

Review, retry or undo

Use See changes or View Diff to review the rewrite. The viewer offers Copy, thumbs-up/down feedback, Retry and a context-dependent action such as Accept edits, Configure Polish or Undo.

• Retry: runs the transform again on your original text.

• Re-transform: options such as Prompt Engineer, Turn to list, Translate to English and Empathize operate on the already-transformed result.

• Undo: restores the most recent transform.

• Links: plain-text URLs become clickable links; Markdown links and HTML anchors are not always preserved, so review them before using the result.

Reset or turn off Transforms

Resetting a single custom transform clears that slot. Reset in base Polish restores its rule toggles without changing shortcuts or other slots.

Turning Opt in off disables the shortcuts and hides the Flow Bar wand without deleting saved transforms or prompts. Re-enabling restores the default shortcuts, so set your custom bindings again.

Platform and interface differences

• iOS Polish: accepts 10–1,000 words and uses only the selection when text is selected. Its five built-in instructions cover concision, clearer wording, grammar/spelling/punctuation, readable structure and matching your tone, and you can add custom instructions. Writing samples and the Translate to English re-polish option are unavailable.

• Flow Bar: shortcuts, the right-click menu and the Hub's Transforms settings are always available, and the wand menu stays visible once you turn on Auto Apply After Dictation or save a custom transform.

Still stuck?

Contact support 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.