Effective Prompting

Getting great results from Doco is all about how you communicate with it. Think of Doco as a helpful assistant—the clearer your instructions, the better the outcome. This guide covers the best practices for working with Doco effectively.

Overview

• Work Step by Step — Break complex tasks into smaller steps and review each one before moving on.
• Plan Before You Edit — Ask Doco for recommendations before jumping into changes.
• Start Fresh Chats — Begin a new chat for new tasks to keep Doco focused.
• Accept Tracked Changes — Resolve any tracked changes before sending a new prompt.
• Use Highlighting — Highlight text in your document to focus Doco on specific sections.
• Be Explicit — Clearly state what action you want and what part of the document you're referring to.

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Work Step by Step

Doco performs significantly better when tackling tasks one step at a time rather than trying to do everything at once. Instead of asking Doco to "rewrite, restructure, and add citations to my entire document," break it down:

1. Ask for recommendations first — Start by asking Doco what it thinks should be done. For example: "What improvements would you suggest for this section?"
2. Request one task at a time — Once you have a plan, ask Doco to complete the first task.
3. Review before moving on — Accept or reject the changes Doco made before asking it to tackle the next task.

This approach gives you more control and leads to better results than trying to accomplish multiple things in a single prompt.

Plan Before You Edit

Before jumping into edits, use Doco to help you plan. Ask questions like:

• "What's the best way to restructure this proposal?"
• "What should I include in this executive summary?"
• "Review this document and tell me what could be improved."

Planning helps ensure Doco fully understands what you want before it starts making changes. Once you're aligned on the approach, you can confidently move forward with editing.

Start Fresh Chats for New Tasks

When you start a new task, consider opening a new chat. Here's why: as your conversation grows longer, Doco has to remember everything you've discussed—even things that are no longer relevant. This can slow it down or cause confusion.

Starting a new chat for each distinct task helps Doco focus entirely on what you need right now, without being distracted by previous conversations.

Accept Tracked Changes Before New Prompts

If Doco has made edits to your document that are showing as tracked changes, accept or reject them before sending your next prompt.

When tracked changes are left unresolved, Doco isn't sure whether you approved those edits or not. This creates confusion about what the "real" content of your document is. Clearing tracked changes gives Doco a clean slate to work from.

Use the Highlight Feature to Focus Doco

When you highlight text in your document before prompting, you're telling Doco exactly where to focus its attention. This is especially useful in longer documents.

Instead of saying "fix the intro," highlight the introduction and then say "improve this section." Doco will know precisely what you're referring to and can give you more targeted results.

Be Explicit About What You Want

Tell Doco What Action to Take

Doco can do several things: it can search through files you've uploaded or your library, it can search the web for information, and it can edit your document directly. Being explicit about what you want helps Doco take the right action:

Instead of...	Try...
"Look for information about market trends"	"Search the web for recent market trends in healthcare"
"Find that data from our report"	"Search my uploaded files for Q3 revenue data"
"Rewrite this paragraph"	"Rewrite this paragraph and apply the changes to the document"

Be Specific About What You're Referencing

Vague references can lead to confusion. Help Doco understand exactly what part of your document you mean:

Instead of...	Try...
"Fix this"	"Fix the second table in the document"
"Make this better"	"Improve the section about our company initiatives"
"Update the numbers"	"Update the revenue figures in the Q3 summary section"

The more specific you are, the more accurate Doco's response will be.

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Quick Reference

Tip	Why It Helps
Work step by step	Gives you control and improves accuracy
Plan before you edit	Ensures Doco understands your goals
Start fresh chats	Keeps Doco focused on the current task
Accept tracked changes	Removes ambiguity about document state
Highlight text	Focuses Doco on the right section
Be explicit	Helps Doco take the correct action