Draft emails and documents

Draft emails and documents

Chat is a fast, reliable way to get a first draft on the page — a customer email, a project update, a policy summary, release notes, a job description, a proposal. You describe what you need and who it’s for; Chat writes it. Then you shape the result with one-click follow-ups until it sounds right.

This guide walks you through drafting from scratch and refining what you get back without retyping your request every time.

Before you start

• You’re signed in to Chat. (See Sign in if you’re not.)
• You know the gist of what you want to say — the audience, the goal, and the tone. You don’t need polished wording; that’s Chat’s job.
• Optional: if the draft should reflect a real document — a contract, a brief, last quarter’s report — have it ready to upload as a file or keep it in a knowledge collection Chat can reference.

Write a good drafting request

Chat writes a better first draft when you give it a little structure. A strong request usually names four things:

Include	Example
What to write	”Draft a customer email…”
Who it’s for	”…to a client whose renewal is overdue…”
The goal	”…asking them to renew, without sounding pushy…”
Tone and length	”…warm and brief, three short paragraphs.”

You can also paste in bullet points, notes, or a rough version and ask Chat to turn them into prose. Anything you give it becomes raw material for the draft.

Draft something

1. Open a new conversation or continue an existing one.

2. In the message box, describe what you want. For example:

   Draft a short, friendly email to my team announcing that our Tuesday standup is moving to 10 a.m. starting next week. Keep it to a few sentences and mention they can reply with any conflicts.

3. Press Enter to send. (Use Shift + Enter if you want a line break inside your message — for instance, when pasting in a list of points.)

4. Chat returns a complete draft. Read it through. It’s a starting point — expect to shape it, not to accept it as-is.

Give it your real notes

The more context you provide, the closer the first draft lands. Pasting your bullet points, the original email you’re replying to, or a few sentences of background almost always beats a one-line request.

Refine the draft with one click

Every reply from Chat has a row of action buttons underneath it. These are the fastest way to iterate — you don’t have to re-explain what you want. The two you’ll reach for most when drafting are:

Button	Use it when…
Refine this	The draft is on the right track but needs polish — tighter wording, a smoother flow, fewer rough edges. Chat improves its previous answer while keeping the same intent.
Try different approach	The draft isn’t quite what you had in mind. Chat rewrites it from a fresh angle — a different structure, framing, or opening — instead of tweaking the existing one.

Other buttons you may see under a reply:

• Explain more — asks Chat to expand or add detail. Useful when a draft feels thin.
• Copy — copies the draft so you can paste it into your email client or document.

Click a button and Chat responds with the next version. You can keep iterating — refine, refine again, or switch approaches — until the draft sounds like you.

Steer it with plain language too

The buttons cover the common moves, but you can always just say what you want in the message box, exactly as you would to a colleague:

• “Make it shorter — half the length.”
• “More formal, this is going to a board member.”
• “Add a sentence thanking them for their patience.”
• “Drop the second paragraph and tighten the rest.”

Each reply builds on the conversation so far, so Chat remembers the draft you’re working on and applies your change to it.

A worked example

You ask:

Draft a brief, professional email to a vendor letting them know we’ll be 30 days late on an invoice payment due to an internal finance migration. Apologetic but matter-of-fact.

Chat drafts a three-paragraph email with a subject line, an apology, the reason, and a firm new payment date.

You click Refine this because it’s slightly too formal.

Chat returns a warmer version with the same facts.

You type: “Add one line offering to set up a call if they have concerns.”

Chat adds the line in the right place, keeping the rest intact.

You click Copy and paste the finished email into your mail app. Three clicks, no retyping.

Ground a draft in your own material

If the draft should be faithful to a specific source — your brand voice, a template, a signed contract, a prior report — give Chat that material to work from:

• Attach a file to your message so Chat drafts from its contents. See Upload a file.
• Reference a knowledge collection so Chat draws on documents your team has already curated, and cites them.
• Turn on Web Search when the draft needs current, public facts — a competitor’s latest announcement, a recent regulation. See Search the web.

When Chat uses a source, it shows where each claim came from so you can check it before you send.

Save and reuse a drafting prompt

If you write the same kind of thing often — weekly updates, standard customer replies — you can save your drafting instructions as a reusable prompt and pull them up in one step next time. See Saved prompts.

Set a consistent voice

For a tone that should stay the same across many drafts — your company’s writing style, a specific persona — an assistant can carry those instructions for you so you don’t restate them each time.

Troubleshooting

If…	Try this
The draft is too long or too short	Click Refine this, or just say “make it shorter” / “expand the second point.” You can always ask for a target — “about 150 words.”
The tone is off	Click Try different approach, or name the tone you want: “more casual,” “more formal,” “warmer.”
It changed something you wanted to keep	Point at it: “keep paragraph one exactly, only rework the ending.” Chat applies the change narrowly.
It invented a detail (a date, a number, a name)	Chat fills gaps when you leave them open. Give it the real value and ask it to use that, or attach the source document so it drafts from facts instead of guessing.
You want to start clean	Click Try different approach for a fresh take, or send a new request describing the draft differently.

Related

• Upload a file — draft from a document you provide.
• Search the web — bring current facts into a draft.
• Saved prompts — reuse your favorite drafting requests.
• Choosing an assistant — keep a consistent voice across drafts.