It is not only a typing box
Everything so far has assumed you type words and read words back. That is the main event, but there are three other doors into the same room, and each one suits a different sort of person.
Near the message box there is usually a small control for attaching things, often a plus sign or a paperclip, and usually a microphone icon for speaking instead of typing. The exact icons and their positions change with every redesign, so hunt around the edges of the box rather than trusting any description, including this one.
In plain English
- Upload:
- Sending a copy of a file from your device so it can be looked at. The original stays exactly where it was, untouched.
- File:
- A document, a photograph, a scan, a spreadsheet. Anything saved on your phone or computer.
- PDF:
- The file type most official letters, forms and statements arrive as. The icon is usually red.
- Dictation:
- Speaking while it writes down what you said. Your voice becomes text in the message box, then works like anything you typed.
Giving it a document to read
This is the one that turns the tool from interesting to useful. A twenty page tenancy agreement, a hospital letter, an insurance renewal, a set of minutes from a meeting you missed. Attach it, then ask about it in ordinary words.
The trick is asking a real question rather than requesting a summary out of habit. Summaries are fine. Answers are better.
Here is my insurance renewal. Tell me in plain English what has changed since last year, what I am now covered for, and anything I would be annoyed to discover only after making a claim.
This is a letter I received today and I do not fully understand it. Explain what it is asking me to do, by when, and what happens if I do nothing. Then tell me if anything in it looks unusual.
Before attaching anything, ask yourself whether you would be comfortable with it sitting on a company's systems. Bank statements, medical records and anything belonging to your employer deserve a moment's thought. Lesson six covers how the record of all this is kept and cleared.
Asking about a photograph
Your phone camera becomes a way of asking questions about the physical world. Take a picture, attach it, ask.
People use this for the label on a plant that is dying, a warning light on a dashboard, a recipe in a book they do not want to type out, a handwritten note from a relative, a menu in a language they do not read, the contents of a fridge when nobody can think what to cook.
โ Weak prompt
Prompt
What is this?
Output
This appears to be a houseplant, likely a common indoor variety. The leaves show some yellowing.
It answered the question you asked, which was almost nothing. Photographs make people terse, as though the picture speaks for itself. It does not know why you took it.
โ Good prompt
Prompt
This is a houseplant in my kitchen. The lower leaves have been going yellow for about three weeks. It sits about two metres from a north facing window and I water it roughly once a week. What are the two or three most likely causes, and what should I change first?
Output
A short reply naming the most likely causes in order, noting that yellowing lower leaves with weekly watering commonly points to overwatering rather than light, and suggesting one specific change to try before anything else.
The photograph and the context together are far stronger than either alone. The picture shows the symptom, your words supply the history, and only then can the answer be about your plant rather than plants in general.
It can misread a photograph with complete confidence, especially handwriting, faint print, small numbers and crowded tables. Take the reading of a photo as a good guess, not as fact, and never treat a picture of a rash, a mole or a medicine as medical advice. Show a person for that.
Talking instead of typing
If typing is slow, uncomfortable, or simply not how you think, use your voice. Press the microphone, speak normally, and watch your words appear in the box. You can then tidy them or send them as they are. Rambling is fine, and often better than a careful sentence, because rambling contains more context.
On phones there is usually also a more conversational mode where you talk and it talks back, rather like a phone call. What it is called and where it sits changes often, so look for something offering a spoken conversation near the microphone. If you cannot find it, dictation alone still gets you most of the benefit.
I am going to speak this messily rather than type it neatly. Listen to everything, then write it back as a clear, short message I could send to my sister.
Dictation is quietly the biggest upgrade in this course for anyone whose hands or eyes make typing tiring. It also removes the last excuse for one line requests, since it costs nothing to say another three sentences.
Checkpoint
Attach documents and photographs and ask real questions about them, use your voice when typing is slow, and treat anything it reads off an image as a good guess rather than a fact.
๐ Quiz
Question 1 of 4What happens to a file on your computer when you attach it here?