The chat: asking questions and attaching context

Where the chat sits

Task menu ▸ Chat

The chat opens as a pane on the right, beside your document. Through the options you can run it as a separate window instead – the setting is called Not always on top.

You type your question and send it with Enter or the Send button. The microphone icon lets you speak the question instead.

What the chat knows on its own: nothing

This is where most misunderstandings start. The chat does not see your document unless you give it to it. A question like "summarise this" refers, as far as it is concerned, to nothing.

Under Context you hand it something:

• Include document (in Excel: Include worksheet, in Outlook: Include current email)
• Include selection – only the selected part
• Include all open Word documents

Give it as little as will do. Sending a whole document when the question is about one paragraph does not make the answer better – and it sends more content out than needed.

Attaching context

Attach context gets you more than the currently open document. The window shows, sorted:

• Open now and Recently used, separated into Word documents, Excel workbooks and Outlook emails,
• Browse for a file… for a file from disk,
• Text from clipboard.

What you attach appears as a small chip above the input field and can be removed individually.

For a large file the add-in asks first and gives you the size. If the content does not fit the budget it is truncated – and you are told so, with the number of characters that actually went through out of the total. Read that notice: an answer about a truncated text may simply not have seen the part that mattered.

When the assistant asks you something

Sometimes the assistant is missing details. A small question panel then appears; you click the answer that fits or type your own under Something else.

If the panel cannot be shown, the chat says so and you simply write the answer as your next message.

History and folders

Your chats are kept and reachable through the chat history. You can create folders and move chats into them.

A deleted chat or folder is gone – the add-in points that out when you delete.

Taking answers with you

• Copy all and Copy last answer.
• Format – returns the answer formatted rather than as raw text.
• Files produced appear under Generated files with their location. If one could not be downloaded, the chat says why – a stopped answer, an expired sign-in, a transfer error.

When an answer breaks off

The chat marks it: "(This answer was cut off before it was finished.)" or "(This answer was not completed.)" Send the message again in that case. A truncated answer can end mid-sentence – or mid-list, which is easier to miss.