Filed under: Mac 101
Mac 101: Shorten text using the Summarize Service
Once you're in the summarize service, you can quickly and easily shorten the selected text by moving the slider between 1% and 100%. As you move it, the text will magically get shorter, while at the same time keeping the basic meaning of the text that you originally selected. The service is so accurate that it's sometimes scary.
When you're done, you can save your summarized text by closing out the window -- you will be asked to save or discard. The result is a .rtf file.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jroen said 8:16AM on 11-19-2008
When I use the summarize function to 1% on this blog post it also keeps the 'main' point of the text:
[quote]
In many applications such as Safari, Pages, and TextEdit, you can select a block of text and click the application name in the menu bar > Services > Summarize.
[/quote]
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Johnny said 10:28AM on 11-19-2008
Best avatar... ever! You win!
Suanko said 2:38AM on 11-21-2008
I love this!
eliezerriver said 8:54AM on 11-19-2008
"In many applications such as Safari, Pages, and TextEdit, you can select a block of text and click the application name in the menu bar > Services > Summarize.
Once you're in the summarize service, you can quickly and easily shorten the selected text by moving the slider between 1% and 100%. "
I preferred this summary.
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Sam said 9:10AM on 11-19-2008
That's an amazing tip. I wonder whether it'll be any good at producing abstracts. I'm curious though, why would somebody code this into Mac OS? I mean I can understand producing a separate program and advertising it as a quick way to summarize things but it seems a little odd to add this into the operating system but not actually advertise it as a feature.
http://gadgetsgamesandstuff.blogspot.com
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alphageek013 said 9:38AM on 11-19-2008
Well you just made my twitter experience a lot better!
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sonicwind said 10:28AM on 11-19-2008
Is there someway I can apply this during conversations or management presentations?
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dano said 11:48AM on 11-19-2008
I wrote and tried to use the following:
And in the end, the verdict handed to the guilt-ridden culprit was sufferable compared to the months of seemingly endless arbitration and litigation endured by the determiners of said verdict.
and nothing happened...(I had just read the latest in the Psystar case...)
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BenOIT@shelston.com said 2:12PM on 11-19-2008
It doesn't summarize the content of a sentence. It attempts to remove sentences from paragraphs.
minjae said 12:09PM on 11-19-2008
I think it just gets rid of blocks of text,
if there are many paragraphs, it gets rid of paragraphs then sentences,
but if there are not that many, it removes sentences,
but it never deletes or moves any words
it usually keeps a sentence or a paragraph located closer to the top
and removes ones in the mid- last region...
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KA said 4:37PM on 11-19-2008
I just used it on this blog post, and you're right: it's scary!
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Joseph said 5:35PM on 11-19-2008
worked great on this blog
worked horrible on news.google.com > click article > printer friendly
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mac-o-mo said 11:14PM on 11-20-2008
There's a great MacBreak episode with Leo and Kenji Kato talking about Summarize.
http://twit.tv/mb62
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