Current guide
Save a Selected Response
Save a selected response
Whole replies are not always the point. A selection save captures exactly the text you highlight: one paragraph, one table, one number, from any response in the conversation. It is the precision route, and it is how a scratchpad gets built from the best fragments of a long chat rather than everything at once. This page covers selecting and saving with the floater, and when the selection beats the whole-response save.
Prerequisites:
- Signed in: Saves require a signed-in account. See sign in to the extension.
- A conversation on screen: Selection works on chatgpt.com and claude.ai, on any response in the chat.
- The active scratchpad concept: Every save lands in the active scratchpad. See the active scratchpad.
Save a selection from the floater#
- Highlight the text you want to keep. Drag across it in the response, as you would to copy it.
- Click the green floater dot. With text selected on the page, the strip offers Add selection to scratchpad.
- Click Add selection to scratchpad.
- The highlighted text, and only it, lands in the active scratchpad:
- A confirmation appears over the page.
- The word count in the pop-up's SCRATCHPAD row climbs by the size of the selection.
- Repeat for the next fragment. One selection per save, as many saves as the work needs, each landing in the same active scratchpad.
Selection or last response#
| Route | What it captures | Reach |
|---|---|---|
| Save the last response | The whole latest reply, one click, no selection needed. | The most recent response only. |
| Save a selection | Exactly the highlighted text. | Any response in the conversation. |
The two routes share everything downstream: the same active scratchpad, the same view in the sidebar, the same editor on the main page.
Beyond the chat#
The same selection save is the heart of capturing on the wider web: highlight text on any page, Wikipedia to documentation, and send it to the active scratchpad from the floater there. That side, with everything else the floater does beyond the chat sites, is covered in scratchpads on non-LLM pages.
FAQ#
Does saving a selection use AI credits?+
No. Selection saves are free on every plan, like every scratchpad save. Credits apply only to the AI features that run on scratchpad content. See scratchpad AI features.
When should I select instead of saving the whole response?+
When the useful part is smaller than the reply: one recommendation out of ten, the working code block, the single statistic. Whole-response saves collect; selection saves curate.
Can I save several fragments from one response?+
Yes. Highlight and save each in turn. Every save appends to the active scratchpad, so a curated set builds up fragment by fragment.
Does this work the same on claude.ai?+
Yes. Selection and the save behave identically on chatgpt.com and claude.ai, into the same active scratchpad.
Where do I see what I have collected?+
In the sidebar's Scratchpad tab, in view mode, and on the main page, where the content is edited. See view scratchpads in the sidebar.