How to get the main points of a long PDF

A 30-page report lands in your inbox and your meeting is in ten minutes. You do not need every word. You need to know what it is about. That is where a summary helps.

Steps

1. Open Summarise PDF.
2. Choose a PDF, or paste text into the box.
3. Pick how many key points you want: 3, 5, 8 or 12.
4. Press Summarise.
5. Read the points and copy them.

It runs on your device. Your document is not uploaded.

How it works

This tool does not write new sentences. It scores the sentences already in your document and shows the ones that seem most important, in their original order. So every line you get is a real line from the document. Nothing is made up.

That is also the limit. It does not understand the document. It cannot explain, compare or draw a conclusion. It can miss a key point that is written in an unusual way, and it may pick a sentence that makes less sense on its own.

Use it as a starting point

Read the key points to decide what deserves your time. Then read those parts of the document properly. For anything important, such as a contract, a legal notice or a medical report, do not rely on a summary alone.

Getting better results

• Longer documents work better than short ones. Under a page there is little to pick from.
• Well-written text with clear sentences works better than tables or lists.
• Try 5 points first. If you need more detail, run it again with 8 or 12.

Scanned PDFs

If you get a message about no text, the PDF is a scan. Use OCR scanned PDF first, then paste the text into the box here.