Rewrite text

Papero can rewrite text you have already written: a sentence, a paragraph or a few paragraphs. You pick what kind of change you want, read the new version beside your text, and decide whether to keep it. Your original stays in place until you accept.

On a Mac, read ⌘ wherever this page says Ctrl.

Rewrite a selection

1. Select the text you want to change. A small menu appears next to it, with Bold, Italic, Underline, Highlight, Rewrite and, once your email is confirmed, Comment. See Share and comment.
2. Press Rewrite, or press Ctrl+J.
3. Pick a preset from the list, or write your own instruction (see below).
4. Read the new version in the preview. Press Accept to use it, Discard to keep your original, or Try again for another version.

With nothing selected, Ctrl+J picks the sentence your cursor is in and opens the same list. If you close the list without choosing, your cursor goes back where it was.

To rewrite a whole paragraph or heading, point at it and press Rewrite this block with AI in the left margin. For a list or a quote, select its text and press Rewrite instead. See The editor.

The presets

• Paraphrase: the same ideas in different words and sentence structures, with better flow.
• Simplify: clearer academic language for complex ideas, keeping the depth.
• Make it more academic: a more formal tone and precise academic vocabulary, at a similar length.
• Shorten: cuts repeated phrases, redundant information and unnecessary words, and keeps the meaning.
• Expand: develops each idea with explanation, definitions of key terms and transitions. It does not add facts, figures or claims your text does not imply.
• Fix grammar and spelling: fixes grammar, spelling and punctuation, and keeps your wording as close to the original as it can.

Papero writes the new version in your document's language. To change it, see Interface language.

Give your own instruction

Under the presets, type what you want where it says Or say how to rewrite it, then press Go. For example: "turn this into one sentence" or "use the past tense". The preview is then headed Your instruction.

Read the preview

The preview opens next to your text, headed with the name of the preset you chose. While Papero writes, it shows Writing… and a Stop button. When the version is ready:

• Accept replaces your selection with the new version.
• Discard closes the preview and keeps your text as it was. Pressing Esc does the same.
• Try again asks for another version with the same preset or instruction.

The new version keeps your citations and inline equations where it can. If a version leaves any out, the preview says how many, for example "This version leaves out 1 citation". Then Discard keeps the original with everything in it.

If you leave the page with a version you have not accepted, Papero asks first. If the selected text changes while Papero is writing, it stops and asks you to select the text again.

What you can rewrite

You can select:

• text within one heading or one caption;
• one or more paragraphs, list items or quotes;
• text within one table cell.

A selection of several blocks can hold paragraphs, but not a heading, a caption, a note or a figure.

Rewrite is not available for text in a code block, or for a selection that includes the table of contents or an equation on its own line. When a selection cannot be rewritten, the menu says why, for example Select text outside code blocks.

A long selection may be too much for one rewrite: the menu then asks you to select less. Expand takes a shorter selection than the other presets, because its answer is longer.

Rewrites and suggestions

Rewrite works on text you have written. To change a suggestion before you accept it, use Refine on the suggestion bar instead: it has its own presets, such as Shorter and More academic. See Autocomplete.

The Review panel's Tone of voice and Proofread checks work on a whole document or section rather than a selection. See Review checks.

Your allowance

A rewrite counts against your plan's AI allowance when you accept it. Refinements of suggestions count as rewrites too. If Papero could not write a version, it says so and the attempt does not count. The rewrite list shows how many rewrites you have left, and Usage in the account menu shows all your allowances. To compare the plans, see pricing.

For more on what the rewrite tools can do, see the features page.