Dictate in any app · Design

Voice typing in Affinity Publisher

Publisher lays out long documents, and long documents are mostly words. With Typally you hold a hotkey, speak, and the text lands in Affinity Publisher exactly where your cursor was.

Yes, we build Typally. That is also why the section on Affinity Publisher's built-in option is honest: people who switch after trying both are the ones who stay.
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In short

  • Affinity Publisher's own dictation: None. Text frames are typed or placed from an external file.
  • What Typally does instead: works above the app rather than inside it — Affinity Publisher sees ordinary typed text.
  • Best used for: copy drafted for placement

Does Affinity Publisher have built-in dictation?

None. Text frames are typed or placed from an external file.

Why dictate in Affinity Publisher at all?

The standard workflow places copy written elsewhere, which means the actual writing happened in a word processor at typing speed. The layout tool gets blamed for a slow process that was slow before it started.

In practice people use it for: Copy drafted for placement, captions, editorial notes, and the brief describing a layout.

How to dictate in Affinity Publisher

There is no Affinity Publisher extension or add-in involved — Typally behaves like a very fast keyboard:

1

Install Typally

Windows or macOS, then sign in. No card for the free tier.

2

Click into the right box in Affinity Publisher first

Click first. Typally types into Affinity Publisher wherever the caret already is, with no idea what that field is for.

3

Press and speak

Hold, talk, release. Long passages are fine.

4

Read it before you move on

Text overflows frames silently when it runs longer than the design allowed. Check after placing dictated copy.

What Typally adds in Affinity Publisher

Typally types into whatever plain editor you draft in and into Publisher's text frames when you need to. Keeping composition out of the layout tool is the real speed-up, and dictation is what makes the drafting stage short.

What this looks like in practice

Someone producing a forty-page catalogue speaks all the product copy into a plain document first. Placement then takes an afternoon instead of a week of writing inside frames.

One habit that makes it work better

Write in a plain editor and place the text. Composing inside a layout means fighting text frames while still deciding what to say.

What to watch out for in Affinity Publisher

Text overflows frames silently when it runs longer than the design allowed. Check after placing dictated copy.

Frequently asked questions

Does Affinity Publisher have dictation?

No. It relies on the operating system's own, or a separate tool.

Should I write inside the layout?

Rarely. Draft elsewhere, then place — layout and composition are different jobs.

Can I dictate captions?

Yes, with the cursor inside the text frame.

Try it in Affinity Publisher

You can try this on the free plan — 100 minutes a month, no card, no trial countdown.

Try Typally free

Also dictate in: Adobe InDesign · Photoshop · Canva · Sketch · Framer · see all apps