Start with an email, not the whole AI conversation
A chat can contain several draft attempts, notes to yourself and a final answer. An email needs a smaller, deliberate unit: the opening, the message, the one useful list or link, and the sign-off. Copying the entire conversation makes it hard to see what the recipient is meant to do next. Before you format anything, make the subject, recipient and purpose clear in Shortwave itself.
Keep the material that gives the message its job: a decision, a request, an owner, a deadline or a question that needs an answer. Move supporting research, long alternatives and prompt instructions out of the body. This is not a formatting trick. It is the editorial pass that makes an AI draft feel like a real message from a person.
- One clear reason for writing
- A request or next step the recipient can act on
- Only the links they need
- A sign-off in your own voice
Keep semantic structure, not the chat page's appearance
The useful parts of an AI draft are ordinary email structure: paragraphs, light emphasis, a short list and labelled links. The unhelpful parts are the browser's font choices, coloured panels, copied spacing and layout rules. A good transfer preserves the first group while removing the second. It should look as though it was written in the destination, not lifted from a chat interface.
Pasteful writes conservative semantic HTML for normal rich paste and a plain-text version alongside it. The rich version uses elements such as paragraphs, emphasis, lists and links; it does not carry source classes, colours, font families or layout CSS. The plain fallback spells out a link destination and retains paragraph breaks, so the text is still useful if a client chooses text-only paste.
- Paragraphs stay separate
- Bold and italic stay available when the composer accepts them
- Lists remain editable lists
- Labelled links retain their destinations
- Source fonts, colours and backgrounds do not travel
How Pasteful prepares an AI email draft · Pasteful privacy model
Shortwave is the final place to check the email
Shortwave documents rich-text and Markdown formatting in its compose box, including a shortcut for inserting a link. That makes it a good place to make the last human edit: add the real subject and recipients, read the opening again and make sure a list is genuinely a list. The composer, not an intermediate preview, is the final authority on what the recipient will receive.
Paste the clean rich copy into a normal Shortwave draft, then inspect the body at the size you intend to send. Open one labelled link and check the deepest list item. If the message is meant to be plain, use Pasteful's plain-text copy instead. There is no reliable way to make rich formatting survive in a text-only representation, and pretending otherwise creates a surprise for the reader.
Shortwave: compose shortcuts and formatting · Shortwave: email signatures
Use the same handoff for ChatGPT and Claude, then edit for the person
The source tool matters less than the last editorial decisions. ChatGPT and Claude can both produce Markdown-like headings, bold labels, numbered steps and links. Pasteful reads the available copied text, prepares an email-oriented representation and lets you inspect it before copying. It does not assume the first draft is ready to send.
Make the message specific to the recipient after it reaches Shortwave. Replace generic openers, delete claims you have not checked, shorten a long list and make any promise a real commitment. If an AI supplied a link, open it. If it supplied a date, confirm it. Formatting can make a message easier to read; it cannot make an unreviewed message true.
Know what Pasteful does not do
Pasteful formats the copied message body locally. It does not connect to Shortwave or an AI account, read your inbox, select recipients, create a subject, attach files, add a signature or send an email. Those remain in the email client, where you can see and approve them.
That boundary is useful when you are moving between tools. Use Pasteful to make the clipboard handoff predictable, then use Shortwave for the decisions that belong to email: context, recipient, tone, attachments and sending. A final read in the destination is part of the workflow, not an extra step.