How to explain, polish, and summarize selected text with AI

When a passage on a web page is difficult to understand, the usual process is to select it, copy it, switch to ChatGPT or Claude, paste it, and then ask the AI to explain it. Polishing an email or summarizing a long passage often involves the same detour.

Text in system error dialogs, images, or video subtitles may not be selectable at all. You first have to take a screenshot, run OCR, copy the recognized text, and finally send it to an AI.

Float Translate connects text capture and text processing in one path.

Text in front of you	Usual process	Float Translate
Selectable text on a web page or in a document	Copy the text, open an AI app, paste it, and describe whether you want an explanation, rewrite, or summary	Select the text and click the matching action in the Floating Capsule
Text that cannot be copied from a system dialog, image, or video	Take a screenshot, run OCR, copy the result, and then open an AI app	Select a screen region, let screenshot OCR recognize it, and pass the result directly to an AI action in a workflow

What to do when text is selectable—or not

For selectable text, first choose a provider and model in the AI Translation extension. When creating an action, choose Explain, Polish, or Summarize, then add the actions you use often to the Floating Capsule.

Select text in a browser, document, or another app. The capsule appears near the selection. Click an action and Float Translate uses the current selection as its input, without another round of copying, pasting, or explaining what you want.

If an error message in a system dialog cannot be selected, combine screenshot OCR and Explain in a workflow. After you trigger it, select the error region. The text recognized by OCR becomes the input to Explain automatically.

Bind that workflow to a shortcut and triggering the shortcut, selecting the text, and getting an explanation become one continuous path. You do not need to open a separate OCR tool or move the recognized text by hand.

When to use Explain, Polish, or Summarize

The three actions solve different problems.

What you need now	Action	What the AI does
Understand a passage or term	Explain	Describe the core meaning in your target language and add only the background you need
Improve something you have written	Polish	Keep the original language while improving clarity and flow
Extract the main points from longer content	Summarize	Condense the source into a short overview or a compact list of key points

Translation expresses a source in another language, but sometimes you recognize every word and still do not understand what the passage means. Use Explain for a concept in technical documentation, an abbreviation in an article, or an argument that depends on context.

The Explain template asks the model to state the core meaning and add terminology or background only when it is necessary for understanding. The result still depends on the model you selected. Check professional definitions, numbers, and anything that could affect a real decision against the original source.

When an email, reply, or piece of copy is complete but sounds awkward, select the part that needs work and use Polish. The template asks the model to preserve the original language, meaning, tone, and amount of information while improving clarity and fluency.

Polishing is a rewrite, so the model may still change details that should remain untouched. Before using the result, check names and numbers and make sure the tone is still appropriate. Use Translate instead when the content needs to be changed into another language.

A long email, product description, or article section does not always need line-by-line attention. Select only the part you care about and use Summarize to get a one-sentence overview or a short list of key points before deciding whether to read the source in full.

A summary deliberately omits information. It should not replace contract terms, operating instructions, or any other source where missing a detail matters. For very long content, summarize one section at a time instead of selecting a large amount of unrelated text at once.

The Floating Capsule works best for a clear operation that can be completed in one step. If you need repeated follow-up questions, several source materials at once, or continued revisions based on the previous answer, a full AI conversation app such as ChatGPT or Claude is still the better tool.

These AI actions send text to the provider you configured. Before submitting account details, unpublished documents, or other sensitive content, review that provider’s data policy.

If the result needs to flow into another step, add the AI action to a workflow. To see how these actions fit together, continue with the complete introduction to Float Translate.