Key Takeaways
- Microsoft’s PowerToys now includes Advanced Paste, featuring an AI option for tasks like text summarization and code generation.
- Users can tie their OpenAI account to PowerToys for utilizing the AI features, or opt for non-AI pasting tools like plain text and JSON.
- Whether you’re into AI tools or not, Advanced Paste in PowerToys offers a range of features to enhance your text manipulation tasks.
As the AI advancement marches on, we’re beginning to see artificial intelligence implemented in as many areas as possible. Sometimes it’s a new and innovative way to get things done, and sometimes it makes you raise an eyebrow and say “Really?” Such is the case with Microsoft’s newest addition to PowerToys, which adds an AI-powered copy-paste feature to the toolkit.
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As spotted by The Vergethe Redmond giant revealed everything about this new feature on Microsoft Learn. You won’t find this feature in the regular version of Windows 11; instead, it’s a new feature in Microsoft’s PowerToys app. If you’ve never heard of it, PowerToys is an officially supported optional app with a range of tools to enhance Windows.
This new tool is called “Advanced Paste,” and it comes with an AI option that analyzes your text with ChatGPT. You’ll need to tie your OpenAI account to PowerToys and have available tokens to use this feature. Once done, you can use one of the following features:
Summarize text : Take long text from the clipboard and ask the AI to summarize it.
Translate text : Take the text from the clipboard in one language and ask the AI to translate it to another language.
Generate code : Take a description of a function from the clipboard and ask the AI to generate the code for it.
Transform text : Take text from the clipboard and ask the AI to rewrite it in a specific style, such as a professional email or a casual message.
Stylize text : Take text from the clipboard and ask the AI to rewrite it in the style of a well-known author, book, or speaker.
Image Credit: Microsoft
If you don’t have an OpenAI account, Advanced Paste also comes with some handy non-AI pasting tools you can use. When enabled, pasting text will give you three options: paste as plain text, paste as JSON, and paste as markdown. Posting the first option does what you’d expect, but the other two will automatically format your text in JSON or markdown. As such, whether or not you’re excited about the rise of AI tools, Advanced Paste has something for you.