Claude Chat Import

How to import a Claude conversation into EMU Editor

What it does

The Claude Chat importer converts a conversation from claude.ai into a structured EMU markdown document, with each speaker's text wrapped in voice markers (<!-- USER -->, <!-- CLAUDE -->, <!-- THINKING -->). These markers allow the document to be re-imported or processed later while preserving who said what.

Method 1 — Copy from claude.ai (recommended)

Step 1. Open the conversation you want to import at claude.ai
Step 2. Select all the text in the conversation (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A while clicked inside the chat area), or manually select from the first message to the last.
Step 3. Copy (Ctrl+C / Cmd+C)
Step 4. In EMU Editor, click the Claude Chat button in the toolbar
Step 5. Click Paste from Clipboard — the conversation will appear in the preview area
Step 6. Optionally enter your name in the User name field (defaults to "User")
Step 7. Click Import — the conversation is loaded into the editor
Tip: The importer reads the HTML from your clipboard, not plain text — so copy directly from the browser page, not from a plain text export. The rich formatting is what allows it to detect speaker boundaries.

Method 2 — Open an HTML file

If you've saved a Claude conversation as an HTML file (e.g. via browser Save As), you can use Open File inside the Chat Import popup to load it directly.

Tip: Save the page as Webpage, Complete or Webpage, HTML Only — either works.

Voice markers

The imported document uses EMU voice markers to tag each speaker:

In WYSIWYG view these render as styled blocks with coloured backgrounds. In Code view they appear as plain HTML comments and are preserved on save.

Troubleshooting

Import button is greyed out — no content has been detected in the preview area. Make sure you pasted or opened a file before clicking Import.
Everything appears as one block — the clipboard content was plain text rather than HTML. Try copying directly from the claude.ai page in your browser rather than from a text editor.
Thinking blocks are missing — Extended Thinking content is only visible if Claude's thinking was expanded in the browser before you copied. Expand any thinking blocks first, then copy.

After importing

The imported conversation is a normal EMU markdown document — you can edit it, add notes, save it as a .md file, and re-open it in EMU Editor at any time. The voice markers will be recognised and rendered correctly on re-open.

EMU Editor v5.6 — emucode.org