The chat: letting it change your document

What this is about

By default the chat only answers. It can also make changes to your document or email itself – but for that you have to grant it write access explicitly.

The setting is called Grant write access and sits in the chat options under Capabilities.

Leave the review step switched on

Right next to it is Review changes before applying. With it active, you see every proposed change in a window first:

"These changes can modify the current document or email. Review them before applying. Nothing is changed until you agree."

The window shows Before and After side by side. You decide with Apply changes or Leave unchanged.

Turn the review off and things are written without asking. There is then no point left at which you could intervene – and Word offers no reliable undo for changes like these. If you want to work without the review, do it on a copy.

When a change is not applied

The chat says what went wrong in each case:

• "There is no email open for editing." – open the email and send the request again.
• "Several emails are open" – the change went to one of them, and the chat names which. If you meant a different one, open the chat in the right window.
• "The open email's editor could not be reached." – click once into the email's text and send again.
• "The passage '…' does not occur in this email." – the chat referred to a passage that is not there in that form. Usually because the text has changed since the last message.

And the most common case: "This answer contained no edit instruction, so nothing was changed." Write access is active, but the chat only answered instead of editing. Phrase the request as an instruction – "replace the second paragraph with …" rather than "how could the second paragraph be phrased better?".

Mailbox access in Outlook

Outlook adds two switches: Chat may read the mailbox and Allow reading Outlook emails. These give the chat access beyond the currently open message.

That is powerful and correspondingly far-reaching. Switch it on when you need it for a particular task, and off again afterwards.

Connectors

Under + ▸ Connectors you can see which external services the chat is connected to and which of their tools are active. The overview names the connection and the number of enabled tools.

Every enabled tool is a route by which content from your document can leave. Enable only what you actually use.