Selectext

What it does

Selectext lets you highlight and copy text that appears inside a video frame on YouTube and other sites, including when the player is in full screen. It is handy for students, programmers and anyone who would otherwise retype text shown on screen.

Key features

• Detects on-screen text in a paused video and copies your selection to the clipboard
• Works on YouTube and video players on other websites, even in full screen
• Keyboard shortcut Alt+S on Windows or Option+S on Mac to start selecting
• Indentation mode keeps code formatting intact when copying from tutorials
• Customisable menu for how text is displayed and copied

Use cases

• Copying code from a programming tutorial into your editor
• Grabbing lecture slide text for your notes
• Saving a link or address shown briefly in a social media video

Getting started

Pause a video and click the Selectext toggle that appears in the top left of the player, or use the keyboard shortcut, then drag over the text you want.

Good to know

Results depend on video resolution and how clearly the text is shown, so blurry or stylised text may not be recognised accurately.