Microsoft brings AI-powered text summarization to Notepad and shape refinement to Snipping Tool

Microsoft is expanding its AI capabilities across Windows applications, introducing new features that streamline text processing and image editing workflows. The latest updates focus on enhancing productivity by automating routine tasks and improving user interface interactions, demonstrating Microsoft’s continued investment in integrating AI throughout its ecosystem.

The big picture: Microsoft is testing AI-powered text summarization in Notepad, allowing Windows Insiders to condense information with a simple right-click or keyboard shortcut.

• Users can generate summaries by highlighting text and selecting “Summarize” from the right-click menu, using the Ctrl + M shortcut, or choosing the option from the Copilot menu.
• The feature includes customization options that let users adjust the length of generated summaries to fit their needs.

Key details: Using Notepad’s new AI features requires signing into a Microsoft account, continuing the company’s pattern of tying AI functionality to user accounts.

• Users who prefer to avoid AI integration can completely disable these features through the app settings menu.
• This update builds on Microsoft’s earlier AI initiatives in Notepad, which included testing an AI-powered Rewrite tool last year.

Beyond text: Microsoft is simultaneously enhancing its Snipping Tool with a new “draw & hold” feature that automatically improves hand-drawn markup elements.

• The feature works by holding the cursor slightly longer when drawing lines, arrows, rectangles, or ovals, causing the app to automatically straighten and refine the shapes.
• Users can then manipulate these elements by resizing, moving, or adjusting them after creation.

Additional improvements: Microsoft is also testing a practical quality-of-life feature that displays recently closed files in Notepad, making it easier to recover previous work.