How to Use ContextSnap

Capture what you see. Move the context.

ContextSnap collects text and screenshots from webpages into one temporary tray, so you can copy them into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, email, documents, notes, or messaging tools in one go. ContextSnap does not connect to those services — you copy with ContextSnap, then paste into the destination you choose.

Quick start

  1. Pin ContextSnap — click the puzzle-piece icon in the Chrome toolbar and pin it, so the tray is always one click away.
  2. Capture using any of the five modes: Capture Text, Capture Visible Screen, Capture Area, Capture Full Page, or Capture Scrollable Area.
  3. Open the tray and reorder or delete anything you don't need.
  4. Copy or export — Copy Context for text, Copy Image for one screenshot, Copy All Images for every screenshot as one image, Export All Images for a ZIP of PNG files, or Export for Word (.docx) for a ready-made document.
  5. Paste with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on Mac) wherever you work.

1. Capture Text

  1. Highlight text on a webpage.
  2. When the small Capture pill appears next to your selection, click it. The text is added to your ContextSnap session.

Quick Capture: hold Alt while selecting text to capture it immediately, without clicking the pill.

Highlighting text on its own does not save anything. You must click the Capture pill or hold Alt. If the pill never appears, open ContextSnap once on that page — opening the tray is what switches text capture on for the page you are viewing.

2. Capture Visible Screen

Takes a screenshot of the webpage exactly as it currently appears in the browser viewport — what you can see, nothing above or below it.

  1. Open the page you want to capture.
  2. Open ContextSnap.
  3. Click Capture Visible Screen.
  4. The screenshot is added to the Session Tray.
  5. Click Copy Image on that item.
  6. Paste with Ctrl+V into ChatGPT, Claude, email, a document, or another destination that accepts images.

3. Capture Area

Lets you keep only part of the visible webpage — one chart, one paragraph, one error message.

  1. Click Capture Area. The tray closes so you can work on the page.
  2. The cursor changes to a crosshair.
  3. Click and drag around the area you want.
  4. Release the mouse. ContextSnap adds the selected region to the Session Tray.
  5. Open ContextSnap and click Copy Image.
  6. Paste with Ctrl+V.

Press Esc at any time to cancel Area Capture. Nothing is saved.

4. Capture Full Page

Capture Full Page automatically scrolls through a long webpage and combines it into one continuous image. Instead of taking several separate screenshots of a long article, conversation, report, or webpage, Full Page Capture can collect it as a single image.

  1. Open the long webpage.
  2. Open ContextSnap.
  3. Click Capture Full Page.
  4. Wait while ContextSnap captures the page — the tray shows progress such as "Capturing full page… 3/7".
  5. Do not scroll manually while the capture is running. You can press Cancel if you change your mind.
  6. ContextSnap returns the page to where you left it when it finishes.
  7. Open the Session Tray and find the item marked FULL PAGE.
  8. Click Copy Image.
  9. Paste the entire captured page with Ctrl+V.

Honest limits: extremely long pages, infinite-scroll feeds, and highly dynamic pages may not work as a single image. ContextSnap will stop safely and tell you when a page is too long instead of producing a broken picture. For a separately scrolling box, use Capture Scrollable Area. Content inside separately scrolling boxes or embedded frames, and anything that only loads after you interact with it, may be missing. For those pages, use Capture Area or Capture Visible Screen instead.

5. Capture Scrollable Area

Some pages have a panel that scrolls on its own while the rest of the page stays still — a chat conversation, a pop-up window, a sidebar list, or a dashboard panel. Capture Scrollable Area scrolls just that panel and combines it into one image.

  1. Open a webpage that has an independently scrolling panel.
  2. Open ContextSnap and click Capture Scrollable Area. The tray closes.
  3. Move the pointer over the panel until it is highlighted with a green outline.
  4. Click to capture it.
  5. Wait while ContextSnap scrolls through the panel. Don't scroll or resize the page meanwhile. A short message on the page reports when it's done.
  6. Open the Session Tray. The new item is marked Scroll area with the number of screens captured, for example "Scroll area · 4 screens".

When it finishes, ContextSnap puts the panel and the page back where you left them. Press Esc while picking or while capturing to cancel. Nothing is saved.

Limits: it can't run on protected browser pages, and it can't capture panels inside embedded frames from other sites. Panels that keep loading more content as you scroll, or are extremely long, are stopped safely and nothing is saved. A panel taller than the browser window, a panel that is partly cut off or covered by something else, and a panel that moves, changes size or disappears during capture are refused rather than saved as a broken image. If a panel also scrolls sideways, only the visible width is captured, and the result says so.

Full Page or Scrollable Area?

Capture Full Page
Use it when the whole page scrolls, like a long article or report. It scrolls the main page from top to bottom.
Capture Scrollable Area
Use it when only one box on the page scrolls, like a chat, a pop-up window, or a dashboard panel. Full Page can't reach inside those boxes. Scrollable Area captures just that box.

Your Session Tray

ContextSnap can collect several pieces of information before you move them somewhere else. Your Session Tray can contain text, screenshots, area captures, and full-page captures and scroll-area captures together, in whatever order you want.

Copy
Copies one individual text capture.
Copy Image
Copies one individual screenshot, Area, Full Page, or Scrollable Area capture as an image.
Copy Context
Combines all the text captures in your session into one organized clipboard entry, in the order shown, with the source page title and link for each one. Images are not included in Copy Context in V1 — use Copy Image for image captures.
Copy All Images
Stacks every image capture, in tray order, into one tall image and copies it. See below.
Export All Images
Downloads a ZIP containing each image capture as its own PNG file.
Export for Word (.docx)
Downloads a Word document containing your image captures, laid out across printable pages.
Delete (✕)
Removes one individual capture from the session.
Reorder
Drag an item into place, or use the ↑ / ↓ buttons on each item — handy if you prefer the keyboard.
Clear Session
Removes all current captures, text and images alike. This cannot be undone.

Copy All Images and Export All Images

Copy All Images stacks all of your image captures, from top to bottom in tray order, into a single image on your clipboard. Nothing is shrunk or left out. If the combined image would be too large, ContextSnap stops and suggests Export All Images instead.

Export All Images downloads a ZIP file with every image capture as a separate, original-quality PNG, numbered in tray order. Use it when you need the individual files, or when there are too many images to combine.

Text captures are not included in either option. Use Copy Context for text.

Export for Word (.docx)

Export for Word downloads a Word document containing your image captures in tray order. Long captures are divided across several printable pages so the text stays readable. Where possible, the breaks fall in blank space instead of through a line of text.

Your screenshots stay as pictures in the document. They are not converted into editable text. Text captures are not included. Use Copy Context for those.

Temporary sessions

ContextSnap sessions are temporary. Your captured content stays on your device during the current browser session and is not uploaded to ContextSnap servers.

Clicking Clear Session removes your captures and their images straight away. Chrome also clears the session list when the browser closes, and ContextSnap deletes any leftover images when the browser starts again — so captures are not designed to survive a restart. If you want to keep something, copy and paste it somewhere permanent before you finish.

Private by design

Protected browser pages

Chrome prevents extensions from capturing certain protected browser pages. This is normal and helps protect browser security. Examples include Chrome settings and other chrome:// internal pages, and the Chrome Web Store. On those pages ContextSnap simply shows that capture is unavailable — nothing is broken. Try it on a normal webpage.

Troubleshooting

I highlighted text but nothing happened.
Open ContextSnap once on that webpage to arm text capture, then highlight again.
Capture doesn't work on this page.
Chrome protects certain internal/browser pages from extensions. Try ContextSnap on a normal webpage.
Full Page Capture stopped.
The page may be extremely long, dynamically changing, or infinite scrolling. Try Capture Area or Capture Visible Screen instead. If the content is inside a separately scrolling box, use Capture Scrollable Area.
My image didn't paste.
Make sure the destination supports pasted images. Click Copy Image again and use Ctrl+V.
"No scrolling panel here."
The spot you're pointing at doesn't scroll on its own. Move the pointer onto the panel's content until a green outline appears. If the whole page scrolls, use Capture Full Page.
"Too long" or the capture stopped.
The page or panel is extremely long, or keeps loading more content as it scrolls (an endless feed). ContextSnap stops safely and saves nothing. Scroll to the part you need and use Capture Area or Capture Visible Screen instead.
A header or toolbar shows up more than once.
ContextSnap hides headers and toolbars that stay stuck on screen, so they appear only once. Some pages force these elements back on screen anyway. If one repeats, try capturing again, or capture the part you need with Capture Area.
Copy All Images says the image is too large.
The combined picture is bigger than your browser can safely make. Use Export All Images, or copy captures one at a time with Copy Image.
The Word pages look different than I expected.
Long captures are spread over several pages so the text stays readable, and wide captures use landscape pages. The pages are pictures, so you can't edit the text in Word.
Copying failed or the clipboard is blocked.
Keep the ContextSnap tray open and click the button again. If it still fails, use Export All Images or Export for Word to save the files instead.
I accidentally captured something.
Use Delete (✕) on that item.
My captures are in the wrong order.
Drag them into position or use the ↑ / ↓ controls.
I want to start over.
Click Clear Session.