Notes and clips from a page

A clip is a passage that keeps where it came from. You can take one from Glob reader, a PDF or a node's body text. You can also copy words on a live website and ask Glob to save them as a note from that page.

Clips are useful when a plain quotation would leave you wondering which article or PDF page to return to. A clip can carry the page title, site, author when known, the time you clipped it and a position in the source.

Select text and choose an action#

In Glob reader or the PDF panel, select a passage and release the pointer, or right-click the selection. A selection in a node's body text also offers these actions:

Select a short passage: a clip can be at most 2,500 characters. If you see Clips are at most 2,500 characters. Select a shorter passage, reduce the selection and try again.

Taking notes, saving nodes and sharing need you to be signed in. Save as node also needs the source node's canvas to be known, and the usual rules for adding there still apply. If it says Open the canvas this node is on to save beside it, open that canvas and repeat the action.

Find a note you took#

Take note creates a node for the selected words, with a title made from the beginning of the passage. It saves that node to Listr. Look under Nodes or All for the saved node, even though the confirmation says Saved to your notes.

The note's canvas location depends on the source. When you are in your own unshared space, the note can be placed inside the source node. When the source is shared or belongs elsewhere, the note goes to your home space instead. Taking a note from a public page does not add that personal note to the page's public discussion.

Save as node uses the source canvas instead. Choose it when you want the quotation arranged and linked beside the reference. If you cannot add there, use Take note to keep the passage in your own space.

Take a note from a live website#

The live website has its own text selection and menus. To use Glob's selection menu directly, choose Reader view first when it is offered.

You can also use the words you copied on the website:

1. Select the passage in the live page and copy it.
2. Choose Take note from what you copied beside Glob's top bar.
3. Allow clipboard access if the browser asks.

The shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+Enter, or ⇧⌘⏎ on a Mac. After copying inside the website, click the frame edge before using the shortcut so Glob has the keyboard again. Clicking the note button works without that extra keyboard step.

Copy some text on the page first means the clipboard was empty. If Glob cannot read what you copied, allow clipboard access or switch to reader view and select the passage there.

This action uses the current page as the source of the clipboard text. Copy the passage immediately before taking the note so an older clipboard item is not attributed to the wrong page.

Save an embed screenshot#

Inside a full-screen website or video embed, choose Save screenshot to Media, the camera beside the lightbulb in the top toolbar. This option appears when you are signed in and private file imports are available.

Draw a dashed box over the area you want inside the embed, then release. Only that box is saved privately in Media → Pictures, with the page or video title and date. The video keeps playing while you draw. Saved confirms completion. The box and capture helpers are absent from the image. Press Esc, click the camera again, or make a tiny drag to cancel. Touch dragging works too; an interrupted touch or scrolling cancels drawing.

Glob uses native capture in a compatible desktop app first, then the Glob Capture extension if installed and its optional Enable embed screenshots permission is granted. Otherwise your browser asks for sharing permission after you draw. In Chrome, choose this Glob tab. In Safari or Firefox, choose the Glob window. Entire-screen sharing is refused: choose the tab or window instead. If a long drag needs a fresh click, your box stays visible with a small Capture button.

The box follows the embed if its position changes during the prompt. If the page or embed size changes, nothing is saved; draw again. A declined prompt, wrong surface, unsupported capture API, or blank/black protected-video frame also saves nothing and shows a message. If the browser leaves fullscreen while asking permission, the message says so; choose Fullscreen to return.

This uses the same private image checks as other file imports; it does not publish or place the image on a canvas. Native box capture needs a new signed desktop release; a website update cannot add it to older installed apps. The extension route requires the updated Chromium extension and the optional permission in its own popup; Firefox and Safari use the browser prompt. The production extension accepts requests only from www.glob.social, so staging uses the browser prompt.

See where a clip came from#

A clip in body text is lightly shaded. Hover it to see Clip source. Right-click with no text selected to keep the source card open. When text is selected, a Source entry can open the source passage instead.

The card can show the site, title, author, clipping date and PDF page number. Open at passage opens the source at the saved text passage or PDF page where supported. Without a saved position, the action is Open page.

Passage links depend on the original page and browser. If a website has changed or does not locate the words, use the source title and search the page. A PDF clip can keep a page position, but a PDF you uploaded has no outside website address, so it does not gain an external passage link.

Text clipped from an ordinary node names that node as its source when available. Selecting text inside an existing clip keeps that clip's original source rather than replacing it with the enclosing node.

Edit and copy a clip#

You can edit clipped words in a node body. Edited from source, together with a dotted underline, tells you the words have changed since they were clipped. The source information remains attached.

Quote checked has a narrower meaning: the quotation was found in the writer's own reader copy when saved. It is not a judgement that the source is correct, and an absent badge is not a judgement that it is false. PDF clips do not receive that reader-copy check.

Copying a clip from Glob reader or a clip-aware node editor can carry its source into another node body. Copy with source uses that same attribution. If the browser or another application keeps only plain text, the words can paste without their source. Check for the shading and source card after pasting when attribution matters.

A node body can carry up to 32 clip sources. A chat line or wall post can carry up to four. If a body with many quotations is refused, split the material across nodes rather than removing the source information.

For sending a clip to a conversation, see sharing web references.