Voice edit

Voice edit rewrites text you have selected. Select a passage in any app, hold Ctrl Alt E, say what to change, and release. The selection is replaced with the result.

Instructions can be anything you would ask an editor, for example:

• "Make it more formal."
• "Translate it into English."
• "Shorten it by half."
• "Turn it into a bulleted list."

The overlay shows Edit while you speak, and the history keeps the instruction, the original selection and the result.

What it needs

• An AI service. Voice edit uses the same service as AI polish, whether that is the built-in service or your own provider. It works even when the AI polish switch is off.
• Selected text of up to 2,000 characters. Without a selection, the voice edit stops and nothing is sent.

To change the shortcut, or turn it off, open Settings → Shortcuts. On Linux with Wayland, bind a system shortcut to voltip-desktop --edit-toggle.

How the selection is read

Voltip copies the selection with a copy shortcut, reads it, and puts your clipboard back as it was:

• On Windows and Linux it uses Ctrl Insert, because Ctrl C interrupts the running program in a terminal.
• On a Mac it uses ⌘ C.

The result is pasted over the selection, which is still highlighted because the focus never leaves the app.

Where it does not work

• Terminals on Windows and Linux. Text in a terminal cannot be replaced, so voice edit refuses to start when a terminal has the focus. It cannot recognise the terminal panel inside an editor such as VS Code; there, avoid starting a voice edit.
• Controls that ignore the copy shortcut, such as some custom-drawn fields: Voltip finds no selection and leaves everything unchanged.
• Editors that copy the whole line when nothing is selected, such as VS Code: the result is pasted at the cursor instead of replacing a selection.
• On some European keyboard layouts on Windows, Ctrl Alt E is the same as AltGr+E, which types €. Choose a different shortcut there.

On X11 with Hold to talk, the selection can only be read after you release the keys, so a missing selection is reported after you have spoken. The Press to start, again to stop mode reports it straight away.

Privacy

The selection and your instruction are sent to the AI service, the same destination as AI polish, and only when you start a voice edit with a selection. The history on your computer keeps the instruction, the selection and the result; you can delete them there.