Dictate in any app · Design
InDesign lays out long documents, and long documents are made of words somebody wrote. Hold a key and talk: Typally transcribes and types it into Adobe InDesign without you touching the keyboard.
From the people who build Typally. If Adobe InDesign's own option covers your use, use it — this page will tell you when it does.None. Text frames are typed or placed from an external document.
The standard workflow places copy from a separate document, which means the writing happened somewhere else — and that somewhere else is usually a word processor where the writer typed it slowly.
In practice people use it for: Copy drafted for placement, caption text, editorial notes, and the brief describing a layout.
Setup happens once, outside Adobe InDesign, and then applies to every program on the machine:
Grab the build for your platform and create an account.
Whatever has the cursor receives the text, so click the right place in Adobe InDesign before starting.
The recording lasts exactly as long as you do.
InDesign shortcuts are single-key when no text frame is active, and text overflows frames silently when it gets longer than the design expected.
Typally is for the copy before it reaches the layout. Speak the text into a plain document, edit it, then place it in InDesign — writing directly into text frames means fighting the layout while still composing. Captions are the exception, and Typally types into those with the cursor inside the frame.
A designer producing a forty-page report dictates the captions for sixty images in one sitting rather than typing them as each is placed. The captions are fuller and the layout work is uninterrupted.
Dictate the copy in a plain document and place it. Writing directly into a layout means fighting text frames while composing, which serves neither task.
InDesign shortcuts are single-key when no text frame is active, and text overflows frames silently when it gets longer than the design expected.
Rarely. Draft elsewhere and place it — layout and composition are different jobs.
Yes, with the cursor inside the text frame.
It can overflow a frame if it runs longer than the design allowed, the same as pasted text.
There is a permanent free tier of 100 minutes a month. Pro costs $7.99/month and raises the limit.
Also dictate in: Photoshop · Canva · Microsoft Word · see all apps