What is "Autosummarize"?

Autosummarize is a Tool included in Microsoft® Word 2002 (and newer versions). It allows a user to highlight and isolate key points in any Word document.

You may click here for the sections of Microsoft®'s online support center focusing on the Autosummarize tool. You may also click here for a student analysis of the Autosummarize command.

According to Microsoft®'s support page:

You will notice that this list does not include Classical works of literature, lyrics to popular songs, erotic internet fanfiction, and a wide variety of other source material. This seems to be an error on Microsoft®'s part, as the Autosummarize command is undeniably useful at capturing the je ne sais quois of all of these formats. This page is an attempt to illustrate the many contributions Autosummarize is capable of making to our shared intellectual heritage, and the efficiency modern technology can offer to that long-tedious task of appreciating literature.

Most of the summaries hosted on this site have been created using the settings shown at left: "Insert an executive summary..." and "100 words or less."

In addition, selections hosted herein have been reformatted for legibility. For the most part, this has simply meant removing extraneous formatting, including emphasis, italicization, and paragraph breaks, and stripping out quotation marks and other unnecessary punctuation.

If you are interested in testing some autosummaries of your own, a wide variety of material can be found at Project Gutenberg and the Internet Classics Archive. Send any particularly good summaries to us for perusal at this e-mail address.

Some of the material summarized on this site is copyrighted. The capsule summaries provided are not intended to infringe upon the rights of the copyright holders, and will be removed at the request of authorized parties.

Unless otherwise attributed, all summaries on this site have been executed by J. Taintor and I. Davidovich.

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