Stop Copy-Pasting Into ChatGPT: How to Use AI Inline on Your Mac

The Copy-Paste Problem

You are writing an email. You need to make it sound more professional. So you open ChatGPT, paste the text, type "make this more professional," wait for the response, copy the result, switch back to your email app, select the original text, and paste the improved version.

That is seven steps and two app switches for a task that should take two seconds.

Now multiply that across your entire day. You copy a Slack message into ChatGPT to get a better reply. You paste a paragraph from a report to get it summarized. You drop in a sentence to translate it to Spanish. You feed in bullet points and ask for a polished paragraph. Every single time, the same tedious loop: copy, switch, paste, prompt, wait, copy, switch, paste.

ChatGPT is an incredible tool. The problem is not the AI. The problem is the workflow. Every time you leave your current app to interact with ChatGPT in a separate window, you break your focus. You lose context. You waste time on mechanical steps that add zero value.

What if the AI came to you instead?

Bring AI to Your Text, Not Your Text to AI

Wordwand flips the ChatGPT workflow on its head. Instead of copying your text to a separate AI window, Wordwand brings AI directly into whatever app you are already using.

The concept is simple: select text, press a keyboard shortcut, choose what you want to do, and your text is transformed in place. No copying. No pasting. No switching apps. The AI processes your text and replaces it right where it sits.

This works in every application on your Mac. Mail, Slack, Pages, Google Docs, Notion, VS Code, Notes, WhatsApp, your CRM, a web form, literally any app where you can select text. One shortcut, one workflow, everywhere.

The difference in speed is dramatic. What takes 30 seconds of copy-paste gymnastics with ChatGPT takes about 3 seconds with Wordwand. Over the course of a day, that adds up to something significant. Over the course of a week, it changes how you work.

Built-In Actions: The Things You Do Every Day

Wordwand comes with a set of ready-made actions that cover the most common AI tasks people perform throughout their day:

• Fix Grammar. Select text with errors, trigger Wordwand, and get corrected text in place. No need to paste into ChatGPT and say "fix the grammar in this."
• Translate. Select text in one language, choose your target language, and the translation replaces the original. Supports 40+ languages. No need to open Google Translate or ask ChatGPT to translate.
• Change Tone. Make a message more formal, more casual, more friendly, or more concise. Select it, pick the tone, done.
• Summarize. Select a long email, article, or document section and get a concise summary in seconds.
• Enhance. Improve the clarity and readability of any text without changing its meaning.

Each of these replaces a specific ChatGPT interaction that would otherwise require the full copy-paste cycle. But the real power comes when you go beyond the built-in actions.

Custom Prompts: Your AI, Your Rules

This is where Wordwand becomes genuinely transformative. Custom prompts let you create your own AI actions, tailored to exactly how you work, and run them with the same one-shortcut workflow as everything else.

Think of custom prompts as saved ChatGPT instructions that you can run on any selected text, in any app, without ever opening ChatGPT.

How Custom Prompts Work

You write a prompt once in Wordwand's settings. It becomes a permanent action in your menu. From that point on, you can select any text, trigger Wordwand, and choose your custom prompt. The AI processes the text according to your instructions and replaces it in place.

Examples of Custom Prompts

Here are some custom prompts that Wordwand users have created:

For sales professionals:

• "Rewrite this cold email to sound personable and value-focused, not salesy"
• "Turn these bullet points into a persuasive product description"
• "Rewrite this follow-up email to create urgency without being pushy"

For developers:

• "Rewrite this code comment to be clear and concise"
• "Turn this technical explanation into something a non-technical stakeholder would understand"
• "Convert this bug report into a clear, actionable Jira ticket"

For marketers:

• "Rewrite this copy to be punchier and more action-oriented"
• "Turn this feature list into benefit-driven marketing copy"
• "Adapt this social media post for a professional LinkedIn audience"

For customer support:

• "Rewrite this reply to be empathetic and solution-oriented"
• "Turn this internal note into a customer-facing explanation"
• "Make this refund denial sound understanding while maintaining the policy"

For managers:

• "Turn these meeting notes into a structured summary with action items"
• "Rewrite this feedback to be constructive and specific"
• "Convert this status update into an executive summary"

The power here is specificity. When you paste text into ChatGPT, you type your instructions fresh every time, and the phrasing varies, which means the results vary too. With a custom prompt, you craft the perfect instruction once and then reuse it consistently. The output quality is more predictable, and the workflow is instant.

Building a Personal AI Toolkit

Over time, your custom prompts become a personal AI toolkit that reflects exactly how you work. A sales manager might have five prompts for different stages of the pipeline. A content writer might have prompts for different publication styles. A support lead might have prompts calibrated to different customer tones.

You are not limited to one or two custom prompts. Create as many as you need. Each one becomes a reusable tool that saves you the full ChatGPT round-trip every time you use it.

Ask AI: When You Need AI to Create, Not Transform

The features above are about transforming existing text: fixing, translating, adjusting, summarizing. But sometimes you need to generate something from scratch. That is where Ask AI comes in.

Ask AI lets you type a brief instruction, select it, and have Wordwand generate the content for you, right inside whatever app you are working in.

How Ask AI Works

Open any text field in any app. Type a short prompt describing what you need. Select what you typed. Trigger Wordwand and choose Ask AI. Wordwand replaces your prompt with the generated text.

That is it. No separate window. No chat interface. No copy-pasting. You describe what you want, and it appears where you need it.

Real-World Ask AI Examples

Drafting emails: Type "write a polite reply declining this meeting, suggest next week instead" in your email reply field. Select it, trigger Ask AI, and Wordwand generates a complete, natural-sounding decline email right in the compose window. Edit as needed and hit Send.

Starting documents: In a blank Google Doc, type "write an introduction for a quarterly business review covering Q4 sales performance." Select it, Ask AI, and you have a solid first paragraph to build on.

Filling in forms: On a web form that asks for a project description, type "describe a web redesign project focused on improving mobile conversion rates, 100 words." Select, Ask AI, done.

Brainstorming: In your notes app, type "list 10 creative marketing ideas for a productivity app targeting remote workers." Select, Ask AI, and you have a brainstorming list without opening a separate tool.

Writing code comments: In VS Code, type "write a docstring for a Python function that takes a list of user objects and returns a dictionary grouped by department." Select, Ask AI, and the docstring appears right above your function.

The key insight is that Ask AI turns any text field into a ChatGPT-like interface. You do not need a separate app for AI generation. Every text field on your Mac becomes a place where you can prompt AI and get results instantly.

The Compound Effect: Why This Is a 10x Productivity Gain

One individual interaction might save you 20 seconds compared to the ChatGPT workflow. That does not sound like much. But productivity gains compound.

Consider a typical knowledge worker's day:

• Fix grammar on 5 emails: 5 interactions
• Adjust tone on 3 messages: 3 interactions
• Translate 2 messages: 2 interactions
• Summarize 2 long emails or documents: 2 interactions
• Generate 3 drafts from scratch: 3 interactions
• Run custom prompts on 5 pieces of text: 5 interactions

That is 20 AI interactions per day. With the ChatGPT copy-paste workflow, each one takes roughly 30 to 45 seconds of mechanical overhead (copying, switching apps, pasting, waiting, copying, switching back, pasting). That is 10 to 15 minutes per day spent on steps that add no value.

With Wordwand, each interaction takes about 3 seconds. The same 20 interactions take about 1 minute of overhead total. You save 10 to 15 minutes per day, which translates to nearly an hour per week, and over 50 hours per year.

But the real gain is not the time saved. It is the focus preserved. Every app switch breaks your concentration. Research suggests it takes an average of 23 minutes to fully refocus after a context switch. Even if the ChatGPT detour only takes 30 seconds, the cognitive cost of breaking your flow is much higher.

When AI works inline, inside the app you are already using, there is no context switch. Your train of thought stays intact. You stay in flow. That is the real 10x multiplier.

Getting Started

Setting up Wordwand takes less than two minutes:

1. Download Wordwand from wordwand.co. It is a native macOS app, just drag it to your Applications folder.
2. Grant Accessibility permissions when prompted. This is what allows Wordwand to read and replace selected text in any app.
3. Set your keyboard shortcut. Pick something comfortable that you can press without thinking.
4. Create your custom prompts. Start with two or three that match your most common ChatGPT interactions. Add more as you discover new use cases.
5. Start using it. The next time you are about to copy text into ChatGPT, stop. Select the text, press your shortcut, and let Wordwand handle it in place.

The free tier gives you 5,000 words per month, which is enough to test the workflow and see how it fits into your day. Most people are sold within the first hour.

Stop Switching. Start Flowing.

ChatGPT changed what is possible with AI. Wordwand changes where it is possible. Instead of going to AI, AI comes to you, right inside the app you are already using, on any text you have selected, ready to transform, translate, generate, or do whatever your custom prompts tell it to do.

The copy-paste era is over. Select, shortcut, done.