Going through a large PDF file to pick the main points is time-consuming and draining. With ChatGPT, you simply use a command, and your PDF file is summarized with speed and ease. If you have a long article, newsletter, book, essay, or research paper, ChatGPT can help you summarize it in no time.
However, summarizing PDFs using ChatGPT is not a walk in the park for everybody. You ought to find the right tool and know how to use it to summarize PDF with ChatGPT. This can be trickier for newbies. Fortunately, this article gives you a complete guide on how to summarize PDF with ChatGPT using the best tool.
In this article
Part 1. The Most Convenient Way To Summarize PDF Using ChatGPT
Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor, powered by ChatGPT, is the most convenient tool for summarizing PDF files. It is a comprehensive PDF editor that offers a wide range of features to enhance your PDF workflow. With PDFelement, you can easily summarize PDF files of any type and size using its AI feature.
The AI feature is seamlessly integrated into PDFelement, making it easily accessible. You can directly process your PDF files without the need to switch to other apps separately. Simply open your PDF file in the PDFelement interface and utilize the AI robot to summarize it.
This feature is easy to use, fast, reliable, and processes all PDF files. Only command it, and you get the results in a few seconds. When you send a summary command, the AI robot reads through the PDF and finds the main points. These points are displayed on the screen, and you can copy or save them as a separate PDF file. Furthermore, you can edit them to meet your needs.
The convenient summary feature of PDFelement, powered by ChatGPT, allows you to summarize the current PDF file or simply paste the content into the designated field for summary. Moreover, PDFelement's AI feature provides three key points and three questions that you may ask about the document. This comprehensive feature set ensures that you can effectively analyze and enhance your documents with ease, including the ability to rewrite, proofread, and explain your document.
How To Summarize the Entire PDF With PDFelement AI
PDFelement provides the most convenient way to summarize PDFs. The following steps show how to summarize a PDF file with the PDFelement AI feature.
Step 1 To begin with, open Wondershare PDFelement on your computer to access the main window. Next, click the "Open PDF" button, then upload the PDF file you want to summarize.
Step 2 Access the AI Sidebar by clicking either the "AI" icon on the right side or the "AI Tools" button under the "Home" tab.
Step 3 Within the AI Sidebar, locate and click on the "Summarize PDF" option positioned in the lower right corner. PDFelement will swiftly generate a concise summary, highlighting three key points and providing three questions based on the content of the PDF.
Step 4 When the summary is ready, click the "Copy Response" button to copy the results. You can create a separate file for your response and paste it to create a new document.
How To Summarize Specific Content in Your PDF With PDFelement AI
To quickly summarize specific text within your PDF file, follow these steps:
Step 1 Select the desired text portion and click the "AI" button in the floating toolbar. From the options, choose "Summarize."
Step 2 PDFelement will promptly generate an abstract.
Step 3 To make use of this summary, click the "Copy" button within the window and paste it into your current PDF or a new document as needed.
Is ChatGPT safe?
ChatGPT is safe to use only if you don't share any private information. While the chatbot is designed to be helpful, it's not designed to keep your conversations confidential. This means that any information you share with ChatGPT may be used to train future versions of the model. This can help to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of the chatbot, but it also means that your chats may be used for research purposes.
If you're uncomfortable with the idea of your conversations being used to train models, you can opt out of this process. However, it's important to note that your chats will still be stored for 30 days to monitor for abuse. This is a necessary step to ensure that the chatbot is being used appropriately and that users are not engaging in any harmful or abusive behavior.
Part 2. How To Summarize PDF With ChatGPT
It is no secret that ChatGPT helps users summarize PDFs with ease. If you are handling a lengthy document, say an essay, research paper, book, or article, ChatGPT can help you summarize it in no time.
One of the popular ways of using ChatGPT to summarize PDF is through ChatGPT Python script. This is a Python code that can access ChatGPT API capabilities. The benefits of using Python script with ChatGPT are better efficiency, scalability, and customizability of tasks.
Can ChatGPT summarize PDF?
ChatGPT can summarize a PDF file directly with ease and speed. However, not all PDFs can be summarized by ChatGPT. If your PDF is inaccessible or is behind a paywall, then ChatGPT cannot summarize your PDF. Again, the summary accuracy for the respective PDF files is not the same. Quality PDF files get better accuracy compared to under-par PDF files.
How To Summarize PDF With ChatGPT Using TLDR Command
The following steps show how to summarize a large PDF document with ChatGPT:
Step 1 First, you need to find the PDF you want to summarize online. Open your PDF file online with a separate tab, then copy its URL.
Step 2 Now, open another tab and access the ChatGPT main page. Log in to your ChatGPT account to get started. You can create an account if you don't have one.
Step 3 Once logged in to your ChatGPT account, navigate to the chat field at the bottom of the page and enter the command "TLDR." Paste your PDF's URL in the same chat field, then press the "Send" button.
ChatGPT will automatically begin to summarize your PDF file. You can check the progress on the background as it writes the main points. ChatGPT understands the "TLDR" command as a request to summarize the respective document (defined by the URL).
Part 3. How To Summarize PDF With ChatGPT Using Plugins
To use ChatGPT plugins to summarize PDFs, follow these simplified steps:
Step 1 Ensure you have a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20/month. Open ChatGPT, go to "Settings" and click "Beta Features." In the popup window, select Beta features and toggle on the Plugins setting.
Step 2 Choose "Plugin Store" at the bottom, and select the plugin you want to install.
Step 3 Click the install button for the chosen plugin (e.g., Mixerbox ChatPDF for summarizing PDF documents).
Step 4 The installed plugin will automatically enable below the model selection buttons. To verify, click the dropdown menu to see list of installed plugins.
Step 5 Enable this Plugin. The enabled plugin will have a checked checkbox. Input the prompt, such as "Summarizethe document in the link: https://examplepdflink".
Step 6 Mixerbox ChatPDF plugin will provide a summary of the PDF document.
Part 4. How To Summarize PDF Files Using ChatGPT Python Script
The following steps illustrate how to summarize large PDF files using ChatGPT and Python easily.
Step 1 Get an API key for the ChatGPT and install the OpenAI Python library. You can install OpenAI and PyPDF2 via pip.
Now, use the Python script to convert your PDF file into the equivalent plain text format. The processing time would depend on the size of the processed PDF file.
Step 2 Use the Script to cut the large plain text into smaller word chunks. The chunks should be made small so that ChatGPT doesn't struggle or demand more resources to process them.
pdf_summary_text = ""
pdf_file_path = "./pdfs/paper.pdf"
pdf_file = open(pdf_file_path, 'rb')
pdf_reader = PyPDF2.PdfReader(pdf_file)
for page_num in range(len(pdf_reader.pages)):
page_text = pdf_reader.pages[page_num].extract_text().lower()
With smaller-sized chunks created, summarize each one of them with the Script. Now that each chunk has its own summary, merge them into a single text file. This makes it easier for ChatGPT to process the summary in an organized manner.
Step 3 Now, write a new summary for the merged chunk summaries using ChatGPT by OpenAI.
response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
model="gpt-3.5-turbo",
messages=[
{"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful research assistant."},
{"role": "user", "content": f"Summarize this: {page_text}"},
],
)
page_summary = response["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
Step 4 From there, concatenate the summaries and save the final summarized text to a file.
pdf_summary_text += page_summary + "\n"
pdf_summary_file = pdf_file_path.replace(os.path.splitext(pdf_file_path)[1], "_summary.txt")
with open(pdf_summary_file, "w+") as file:
file.write(pdf_summary_text)
Step 5 Finish by closing the PDF file.
pdf_file.close()
Part 5. What Are the Limitations of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is mind-blowing, and myriads of people can't believe its prowess. While everything good is popping up about ChatGPT, it is no secret that it, too, has some limitations. Some of the common limitations of ChatGPT include the following.
Limited Knowledge- the major downside of ChatGPT is that it lacks information on events post-2021. If you query anything post-2021, ChatGPT will not give you that information. Therefore, it is only useful if the queried information happened in or before 2021.
Understanding some contexts- ChatGPT tends to struggle in understanding some contexts, such as humor and sarcasm.
Low emotional intelligence and common sense- Unlike humans, ChatGPT often cannot generate human responses. While they may generate emphatic responses, they are not truly emotional.
Struggles handling multiple tasks simultaneously- ChatGPT is great when handling a single task. However, it tends to struggle with multiple tasks at the same time. This reduces its performance in terms of effectiveness and accuracy.
Can generate biased responses- Since ChatGPT is trained using large data sets, it is possible that these data sets contain biases or prejudice. This bias and prejudice will translate to the ChatGPT's responses; hence, users can get a biased judgment of a situation.
Part 6. Which AI Tool Is Best To Summarize PDF?
There are many AI tools to summarize PDF files out there. However, finding the right tool can be a nightmare. Most tools promise outstanding performances, yet they offer below-par performances. If you need the best experience, use the best AI tool to summarize your PDF.
Fortunately, the PDFelement AI robot feature provides the best platform to summarize PDF files. This AI robot is designed with the user in mind and won't let you down. It is fast, easy to use, and effective. It can handle all types and sizes of PDF files. Furthermore, you can use the PDFelement features to fine-tune your document and transform how you interact with your PDF files.
Conclusion
ChatGPT has undoubtedly transformed how we summarize PDF files. While this is true, droves of people are still struggling to leverage this amazing feature. Well, there are several ways to summarize PDF using ChatGPT. However, not every method gives you the desired performances and experience.
Fortunately, you can effortlessly see that Wondershare PDFelement's AI robot feature is the king of the jungle. The ease of use, speed, effectiveness, and accuracy make it an indispensable tool for summarizing PDFs using ChatGPT. The latest version of Wondershare PDFelement comes with the AI robot feature. Therefore, you only need to download the latest Wondershare PDFelement version and get started with ChatGPT summarize PDF.