Can the Assistant read a PDF, Word or Excel file?

Yes, as long as the file contains text. Press the paperclip in the message box, pick up to three files (PDF, Word, Excel, CSV or text), type your question and send. The app reads the files on this computer and gives the Assistant the passages it needs. The original file is never changed.

The Assistant is a Beta: it works, and we are still improving it. Tell us what you notice.

#Ask about a file

1. Press the paperclip, labelled Attach a file, and choose the file. You can also drop a file on the chat. A chip shows its name and size, and the page says “Nothing is read until you send.”
2. Type your question, for example “What are the deadlines in this?” With no words at all, the Assistant summarises the file.
3. Send it. The reply says “Reading your file” while the app works, and Stop ends it.

Name the pages you want and it reads those: “page 5”, “pages 3 to 6” or “the last page”. Otherwise it starts with the parts that use your question’s own words, then the start of the file. A very long file says “This file is very long. I read the first part of it.” You can attach three files to one message, and the same file only once.

#Which files it reads

• PDF with a text layer: up to 25 MB and the first 200 pages.
• Word (.docx): up to 25 MB. The words are read. Pictures and text boxes are not.
• Excel (.xlsx): up to 25 MB and the first 20 sheets.
• CSV, text and Markdown: up to 5 MB.

Long files take minutes on older computers. If the reading itself takes more than 60 seconds, the app stops and says “This file took too long to read, so I stopped. Try a smaller one.”

#Numbers in a spreadsheet

Ask for a count or a total, such as “how many rows” or “total of Amount where Status is Paid”, and the app answers by counting the cells itself. The Assistant is not asked, and with a cloud engine nothing leaves your computer for it. The answer is headed What I counted.

#When a file cannot be read

This PDF is a scan with no text I can read.

This is an old Word format. Open it, save it as .docx, then add it again.

I cannot read PowerPoint files. Save the slides as a PDF, then add that.

This file is 40 MB. I can read files up to 25 MB.

This PDF is locked with a password. Open it, save a copy without the password, then add that.

A damaged file gets a plain sentence that says so, such as “This PDF is damaged, so I cannot read it.” A PDF with more than 200 pages says “This PDF has 450 pages. I read the first 200.” Name the pages you want in your question, or attach the later part on its own.

#A file cannot give orders

The Assistant treats the text of a file as information to read. If a file holds instructions written for an AI, the Assistant says “This file has instructions written for an AI. I ignored them and used it only as information.” Anything a file suggests, such as tasks from a list in a PDF, can only become a card that you press. See changing your tasks by talking.

#Where the file goes

With the Assistant on this computer, the text of the file is used while the answer is written and is not kept in the chat. The chat keeps a chip with the file’s name, kind and size.

With a cloud engine, the text of a file goes only after you press Send this once on a card, for that one request. The card says who gets it and what would be sent, which is your message and the text of the file, and it says the file itself is not sent. It asks again next time. Offline Lock stops cloud engines completely. See the Assistant and your privacy.