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Our course development team were researching some of the practical ways you can use AI in Microsoft Office and thought we’d start with Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is such a massively used program but it’s also very complicated when you really get into the formatting of characters, paragraphs and pages.
Even if you use an AI Assistant to create a beautiful document, flyer, price list, brochure or report – how are you going to modify it with small changes. That’s when you need to get back to the basics about non-printing characters and character formatting.
Here are some of the ways we discovered..
Drafting Documents from Scratch
Word has shifted from a simple word processor to a co-authoring tool — AI can generate text from a simple prompt, allowing users to draft emails, reports, or articles in just a few clicks. You can simply describe what you want — “Write a 500-word project proposal” — and your AI Assistant builds a solid draft in seconds.
Here are some examples:
- A tax agent prompts Word: “Write a client onboarding letter for a new small business bookkeeping client”
- A tradie asks: “Write a quote template for a plumbing job including labour, materials, and GST”
- A VA or bookkeeper generates a standard engagement letter or service agreement in seconds
Summarising Long Documents
Your AI Assistant can summarise large documents up to 80,000 words, helping you produce deliverables faster — particularly useful for client briefs, research documents, and lengthy business reports.
It’s one of the most practically used features in professional settings and here are some examples:
- Pasting in a lengthy ATO ruling or bank statement report and asking for a plain-English summary
- Summarising a supplier contract before signing
- Condensing a business plan into an executive summary for a bank or investor
Rewriting and Tone Adjustment
You can ask your AI Assistant things like:
- Summarize this text,
- Make it sound more formal,
- Rewrite this paragraph for a 9-year-old.
Your AI Assistant makes it easy to tailor documents for different audiences — whether writing for a client, a regulator, or a team member.
Here are some examples:
- Taking a formal legal letter and rewriting it into simple language to send to a customer
- Converting internal notes from a job site into a professional client report
- Adjusting a debt collection email to sound firm but not aggressive
Grammar, Clarity, and Writing Style
The Microsoft Word Editor handles grammar, spelling, and clarity suggestions at no extra cost.
But if you type a long, tangled sentence, Word politely suggests a shorter version, keeping clarity without losing personality. Here are some examples:
- A non-native English speaker running a small business polishing their client proposals (sales)
- A bookkeeper cleaning up their LinkedIn profile or website bio (marketing)
- Improving the clarity of terms and conditions or refund policies (credit management)
Voice Dictation and Hands-Free Writing
Your AI Assistant can convert speech into text in real time, and lets you format, add punctuation, and edit — all with voice commands. This is ideal for multitasking, accessibility, and getting ideas down quickly without typing.
- A tradie on a job site dictating notes for an invoice or job report hands-free
- A consultant dictating meeting notes while driving between client visits
- A small business owner brainstorming a marketing email out loud while making coffee
Learn Microsoft Office
The Office Academy course package includes beginners to advanced training on Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
It includes:
- 89 hours (89 CPD Points)
- Hundreds of Video Tutorials
- 21 x training workbooks
- Hundreds of exercise files
- Practical step-by-step exercises