Quick Edit: select text anywhere and say what you want changed

By Ryleigh Newman · Published August 27, 2026 · Updated October 6, 2026

To edit text by voice on a Mac with YapToText, select the words in any app, tap the Quick Edit key, Right Option by default, say the change, and tap it again. The result replaces your selection, and the models that do it run on your Mac. Its settings live on the Quick Edit page.

My hands make typing difficult, and fixing a sentence I had already written used to mean going back to the keyboard. Quick Edit is how I avoid that: I select the words and say the edit, the same way I would lean over to a person at the keyboard and tell them.

This app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

Steps

1. Select the text you want changed, in any app.
2. Tap the Quick Edit key, Right Option by default.
3. Say the change, for example: make this shorter.
4. Tap the key again. The result replaces your selection.

Edit a selection

Step 1: Select the words

• You: Highlight the words you want changed, in any app.
• Check: The words are highlighted.

Step 2: Tap the key and say the change

• You: Tap Right Option and say what you want, for example: make it sound more formal.
• YapToText: Opens the Quick Edit card, purple out of the box, which says Listening for your edit and shows your words in quotes as it hears them.
• Check: The card shows your instruction in quotes.

Step 3: Tap it again

• You: Tap Right Option again.
• YapToText: Turns your instruction into text, applies it to the selection on your Mac and replaces the selection.
• Check: The card says Done, and the selection is replaced.

What you say is an instruction, so none of it is typed. A second tap within a second of the first keeps listening, so a quick double tap does not cut you off. If nothing is selected when you tap, the card says Select some text first and waits up to 12 seconds, then starts on its own the moment you highlight something.

What to say

Talk to it the way you would talk to an editor:

• Shorter. Make this shorter.
• Grammar. Fix the grammar.
• Tone. Make it sound more formal, or friendlier.
• Format. Turn it into bullet points.
• Language. Translate it to Spanish, or name another language.
• Case. Capitalize this. Exact case changes skip the AI and are instant.
• Swap. Change this to hearing aids. Exact swaps skip the AI too, and replace the words exactly as you say them.

Say: With the right spelling of a word selected anywhere.

add this to my dictionary

What happens: The card says Added, with the word in quotes. The selection goes into your first dictionary exactly as written, and for a single word of three letters or more, YapToText also maps up to four likely mishearings to it, plus the split a recognizer tends to hear, like you tube for YouTube.

Plain requests, said the way you would say them to a person, work best. The dictionaries guide covers what happens to the words you add. To replace a selection with new words instead of an edit, just dictate over it, and Intelligent Insert shapes the new words like the old ones.

Cancel an edit while it works

While the card says Applying your edit, with Press Esc to cancel under it, press Esc once. The card says the edit was canceled and nothing was changed, and your selection is left exactly as it was. Esc is the one cancel, and it leaves your text as it was.

Pressing the Quick Edit key again while it applies stops it too, and the card closes. If you stop before saying anything, or say only something like okay or um, the card says Didn't catch an instruction, and nothing changes.

Read the card when it finishes

The card always says how it went:

• Done. The selection was replaced.
• Nothing changed, or Already like that. The text stayed as it was.
• That didn't sound like an edit. What you said was not a request to change the text.
• Couldn't apply that edit. The rewrite failed, and your text is untouched.
• Can't read the selection. Secure Input is on, which usually means a password field.
• Select some text first. Nothing was selected when you tapped.

The card says so when nothing changed, so you never have to guess.

The options

• Quick Edit key. Right Option (default). Responds to Tap to start / stop (default) or Hold to talk, where you hold the key while you speak and release to apply. The switch at the top of the Key card turns the key off. Any key can be the trigger, and on Caps Lock, Hold to talk works as a tap.
• Fix a dictation by speaking again. On by default, in the Corrections by voice card. Right after text lands, scratch that removes it and replace, then the wrong word, then with, then the right word fixes it, no key needed. Only an exact whole phrase counts, within 30 seconds, and it needs Insert text automatically.
• Pop-up opens at. Bottom center (default), Center of screen, Top center or Near menu bar. Drag the card and it stays where you leave it. Snap back to this position (off by default) returns it every time, and Reset position forgets the drag.
• Pop-up colors. A Card background color and a Card waveform color of its own, purple out of the box. Match the dictation pop-up copies the dictation panel's colors.
• Model for edits. Same as dictation (default), or any cleanup model you have already downloaded. The page links to AI Models for more, and the models guide compares them.

The defaults are tap to start and stop, and the same model as dictation. Every key is listed in YapToText's keys.

Limits

• Accessibility. Reading the selection and typing the result back both need it, the same permission that lets the app type.
• Password fields. It cannot read a selection while Secure Input is on.
• A small model. Rewrites come from a cleanup model on your Mac, so read a long rewrite before you send it.
• History. Quick Edit instructions stay out of History.
• Adding words. Sound-alikes are added for single words of three letters or more. A phrase of up to 80 characters is added exactly as selected.
• One at a time. Quick Edit does not start while a dictation is still running or finishing.

If Quick Edit does nothing

1. Select the text first. In Hold to talk, highlight the words and hold the key again. In tap mode, the card waits for you to highlight something.
2. Check the key. On the Quick Edit page, the Quick Edit key switch must be on, and the key field must not be red, which means the dictation key uses the same key.
3. Check Accessibility. On the Home page, the Get set up card appears while it is missing.
4. Leave the password field. Click into normal text and try again.
5. Try another model. Pick a different cleanup model under Model for edits.
6. Tell me. Open a GitHub issue with the app, what you selected, what you said and what the card said.

The short version

• Select. Highlight the words in any app.
• Tap and say. Tap Right Option and say the change.
• Tap again. The result replaces the selection. Esc cancels while it works.

Select, say, done, without going back to the keyboard. For a whole setup built around not typing, typing on a Mac without hands puts the pieces together. If an edit goes wrong, open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.

This app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Related

• Dictionaries: teach YapToText your names and jargon
• Dictation modes: the same words, shaped for where they are going
• Hands free typing on a Mac: the setup I use every day
• YapToText's keys: the speech to text shortcut, and how to change it
• Edit text by voice on a Mac: fix, rewrite and delete without typing
• Download YapToText for your Mac
• Auto mode: dictation that works out what it is

Questions