Learn how to summarize text on a Mac to read a short version of any document without using Apple Intelligence, other AI tools, or any apps at all.
Writing Tools in Apple Intelligence can summarize text, make long text shorter, and create new text from scratch based on your prompt, powered by ChatGPT integration. But if you don’t want to use Writing Tools or other AI tools, we’ll teach you about a lesser-known text summarization that has existed in the Mac operating system for years.
Turn on Summarize on your Mac
Click the Apple menu and choose System Settings, then select Keyboard in the sidebar, and click the Keyboard Shortcuts button on the right. Select Services in the sidebar, then expand the Text section, tick the box next to Summarize, and click Done.
If your computer is running an older macOS version, venture into System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Text, and tick the box next to Summarize.
How to use the built-in Summarize feature on a Mac
Now that the Summarize feature is on, you can just highlight some text in an app, email, PDF document or similar, then click the app’s name in the menu bar and select Services > Summarize.
You’ll see a summarized version of the highlighted text in a new window that you can save as a text document. You can also change summarization length to offer more or less information and adjust options from sentence-to-sentence to paragraph-to-paragraph. Alternatively, select text and choose Services > Summarize from the right-click menu. In some apps like Word, this option doesn’t appear in the menu.
I’ve tested Summarize with several different apps, and it appears to work well with any piece of software where I can work with text, including Safari and Chrome, third-party email clients, and more. However, paragraph summary doesn’t seem to be of much use as it cuts out larger sections of text.
Aside from this built-in macOS feature, feel free to try third-party websites like smmry.com, quillbot.com, and resoomer.com to summarize your text.
Also, check out: List of all Apple Intelligence features and what they do