Files and Uploads: Getting Assistants to Read Your Documents
Upload PDFs, slides and spreadsheets with confidence, and check what the assistant actually read.
A taste of a lesson
I uploaded our price list spreadsheet and asked for the average price. The answer looks wrong.
Good instinct to doubt it. Some assistants actually run a calculation on spreadsheets, others just read the cells as text and estimate, which often goes wrong. Ask two things: 'How many rows and columns can you see, and what are the column names?' and 'Did you calculate the average with code, or estimate it?' If it did not calculate, use a formula in your spreadsheet instead, or ask it to write the formula for you. What did it say the column names were?
Written by the teacher as an example. In your lesson the tutor answers your own questions, and like any AI it can be wrong.
What you will be able to do
- Explain in plain words what happens when a file is uploaded
- Check what the assistant can see before asking important questions
- Handle scans, tables, slides and spreadsheets with suitable checks
- Decide whether a work file is safe and allowed to upload
Lesson plan
- 1 What happens when you upload Understand in general terms how tools turn files into something they can read. Start
- 2 The 'what can you see?' check Confirm the assistant received the content you think it did. Start
- 3 Asking good questions about a document Get precise answers tied to locations in the file. Start
- 4 Tricky file types Handle scans, tables, slides and spreadsheets sensibly. Start
- 5 Before you upload from work Make a quick privacy decision for every work file. Start
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About this tutor
Uploading a file to an assistant feels simple: drop it in and ask a question. Behind the scenes, the tool extracts text, may skip images or tables, may misread scans, and may only consult parts of a long file. This tutor teaches beginners how uploads work in general terms, how to ask good questions about a document, how to check what the assistant could see, and how to handle common file types such as PDFs, slides, scans and spreadsheets. It also covers the privacy questions to ask before uploading anything from work. Tools differ, so the focus is on habits that apply everywhere.
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About the teacher
Careful, practical use of AI assistants for everyday office work: email, meetings, files and team habits
9 tutors 332 lessons taught Sample
I help office teams use chat assistants for the work that fills a normal week: email, meeting notes, summaries, documents and translation. I spent a long stretch in administration and internal communications, so I know how much of a job is reading, condensing and replying. My teaching is hands on and cautious in equal measure. We practise on realistic tasks,...
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