Way to multi-select parts of text and send to Zapier as fields?

Question

Is there any way for a user who is reading a multi-paragraph text in Chrome to select parts of that text - ie. Name, Comment, Location - and send them to Zapier as fields?

Input text would not be in a uniform format, so parsing rules are not an option. Presumably, it would need to be something in Chrome that allows me to point at different parts of the text and then send it off.

Or maybe it’s an extension that lets me create a CSV out of the pointed-at fields, which I can then send to XZapier.

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Best answer by nicksimard 28 April 2020, 22:08

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nicksimard · Accepted Answer

Hi @robertandrews,

One option to check out is Airtable’s new-ish Web Clipper block: https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036855174-Web-clipper-block. You can only select one block of text and have it added to a record in Airtable, so it may not be quite what you’re looking for.

BUT, you can also use CSS selectors, so if the name/comment/location uses the same CSS selector every time, then this would be a great option. Great examples of what can be done here: https://blog.airtable.com/web-clipper-recipe-contest-the-results-are-in/.

NOTE: that feature is only available on their Pro plan.

robertandrews · Answer

That’s a genius idea, thanks.

I’m a big Airtable user but have alrgely ignored Blocks since they made a hard split in product developmenbt a couple of years ago when they introduced them. And, alas, I’m not on a Pro plan, which is therefore a shame.

FYI, my source info would be Gmail messages. No uniformity about the content schema; I’d just be selecting fields from hand-written messages and trying to map them to a database like Airtables or some other option. I guess I will need another option since I won’t have access to Blocks, but thanks for this idea, good to know it exists.

Worth saying that I also use Notion, but its web clipper only supports a single field.

UPDATE: Knowledge that Airtable offers its own such clipper as a Block prompted me to think about how it would be possible (for those capable) to use the Airtable API to write a Chrome extension for this. And someone has already done it - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to-airtable/gnlfpcbhdipbidmkchkjlleppeijclbj?hl=en I’ve tested a basic addition to Airtable this way and it works, plus it offers more extensive capability re: CSS classes, a bit like you flagged for the official one. I’m going to look further at that. There are also some other Chrome web clippers.

As long as I get records from websites in to Airtable, I can use Zapier.

Thanks.

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