Hand over a document: “Match this format.”
Show the AI what good looks like. Have it use an existing document’s format for something new.
Try it now
Copy the prompt into your AI tool of choice, then answer its questions as they come.
Paste it into any AI chat to start. For most people, this is all you need.
Everything on this page in one paste: the prompt plus the full plan, every step and what to check. Use it for longer moves, to plan ahead, to share with a colleague, or if your AI can't open links.
How it goes
What the AI will do
- Reproduce the reference document’s structure, formatting, and recurring conventions using your new content.
What to have ready
- A reference document and new material, even as rough notes; relevant files or correspondence can supply context.
Where you come in
- Clarify purpose or missing information and choose how to adapt the format where the new content differs.
What you'll get
You have an editable document that follows the reference format and contains the intended new material, with any remaining gaps identified.
You're done when
You have an editable document that follows the reference format and contains the intended new material, with any remaining gaps identified.
These are general instructions, not a description of this user's particular AI system, tools, access, or circumstances. Adapt the method to the user's goal and the capabilities you can actually use, while preserving the activity's essential sequence, review points, and intended result. ### Start with the activity and the user's context Read the complete activity and guide the user through it. Use the activity prompt yourself; the user does not need to paste it again. Keep the responsibilities of the user, the AI, and any colleague clear. Begin with what the user has already supplied. Establish the intended result and resolve missing context through focused questions when needed. Work within the activity's stated scope, permissions, required confirmations, and stopping points, including any deliberate order for introducing information. Make progress with the available information and reasonable, clearly identified assumptions where the activity allows them. ### Check the capabilities needed for this work Inspect relevant available tools, connectors, and data. Use small, relevant, non-destructive checks to establish whether necessary access or a capability actually works. Naming a product does not establish access to it. Let this activity determine what needs checking; do not impose a universal preliminary questionnaire or a full system audit. When useful access is missing: - Explain what you cannot reach and how that material would help. - Investigate practical setup, connection, export, or other access alternatives before asking the user to gather material or troubleshoot. - If progress depends on access, request only the specific user action or permission needed to enable it or provide the material another way. Continue useful independent work while awaiting the response. - Offer to walk the user through an export or upload. Welcome files, links, copied text, rough notes, or an interview as supported by your system and the activity, and use the best available route. If the missing access is optional, continue with what is available. ### Ask focused questions and respect the answers Ask questions only when necessary to complete the work well or satisfy the activity's required review points. Build on answers already supplied. Ask one question at a time, or a small group of closely related questions. Wait on work that depends on the answer, and continue useful work that does not. Explain unfamiliar language with examples where helpful. Confirm answers or decisions you supply on the user's behalf before treating them as the user's final answers or decisions. This does not require separate approval of every sourced finding; follow the activity's specific review requirements. ### Keep evidence and independent contributions distinct Distinguish evidence, inference, and missing information. Check your work against the source material. Use independent agents when your system actually supports delegation and independent investigation or review would improve the work: - Give each agent a bounded brief and the context appropriate to its role. - Keep discovery independent until synthesis where the activity requires it. Preserve any requirement for the user or colleagues to contribute before seeing other explanations. - Follow the activity's stated fallback and any required confirmation when independent agents or fresh contexts are unavailable. Preserve reviewer isolation where required; describe shared-context or sequential passes accurately. ### Produce, check, and revise the result Do the substantive investigation and production. Carry the activity through to the most complete, usable result within its scope, rather than ending with a plan or handing the main work back to the user. When missing information does not prevent useful work, proceed with clearly identified assumptions where the activity permits them. Check the result against the activity's completion criteria. At each substantive delivery, state what is complete and any material unfinished work, assumptions, helpful missing information, and remaining uncertainty. Explain how these affect what the user can use, and help the user revise the result. Preserve the activity's stopping point. Do not turn a rehearsal, investigation, or test-design activity into execution that the user has not authorized. Use the document I supplied as a format reference for a new editable document. ### 1. Understand the reference and new content. Inspect the actual reference, including its visual layout and editable structure where accessible. Identify page size, margins, heading hierarchy, type styles, spacing, tables, lists, headers and footers, numbering, repeated sections, and conventions for examples or citations. Note which features depend on tools or fonts available here. Read the material intended for the new document. Use relevant available briefs, email, messages and chats, meeting transcripts, documents, and project files to establish its purpose, audience, and missing context. Keep the reference’s example facts and the new document’s facts distinct; matching a format does not authorize reusing obsolete names, dates, or conclusions. Ask focused questions when the expected result or missing content is unclear. If the new material fits the reference in two meaningfully different ways, show a short example of each, such as preserving every section or combining two empty sections. Recommend a treatment and wait for a consequential choice. Follow explicit format requirements already given. ### 2. Map the content and create the document. Map the new content into the reference’s structure. Gather available facts yourself, then ask about gaps that only I can settle. Do not invent content to fill a template. Use clearly marked placeholders only where the document can remain useful with that gap identified. Create a new editable file, preserving the supplied reference. Use real headings, lists, tables, and styles so editing does not destroy the structure. Reproduce the relevant visual conventions and relationships between sections. Adapt page breaks and table widths to the new content instead of copying coordinates that cause overflow. If an exact feature is unsupported, offer a concrete available alternative and explain the difference before claiming fidelity. ### 3. Inspect and finish. - Open or render the result where possible and compare it with the reference. - Check the first page, representative repeated sections, long tables, page breaks, headers, footers, and numbering. - Verify the new content against its sources and search for leftover sample text, old names, and unintended blank sections. Repair formatting and content errors, then inspect the affected pages again. Deliver the editable file and briefly identify any unresolved content or unsupported formatting. Invite corrections and revise if supplied. Do not describe an unrendered approximation as an exact visual match. These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.
View full AI instructions
Hand over a document: “Match this format.”
What the AI will do
- Reproduce the reference document’s structure, formatting, and recurring conventions using your new content.
What you can provide
- A reference document and new material, even as rough notes; relevant files or correspondence can supply context.
Where you'll take part
- Clarify purpose or missing information and choose how to adapt the format where the new content differs.
What you'll get
You have an editable document that follows the reference format and contains the intended new material, with any remaining gaps identified.
Activity context
Show the AI what good looks like. Have it use an existing document’s format for something new.
For the user
Share a reference document and whatever content belongs in the new one. The AI can find relevant briefs and project material, inspect the format, and produce an editable version. You’ll clarify missing content or choose how to handle a section that does not fit.
Guidance for the AI
These are general instructions, not a description of this user's particular AI system, tools, access, or circumstances. Adapt the method to the user's goal and the capabilities you can actually use, while preserving the activity's essential sequence, review points, and intended result.
Start with the activity and the user's context
Read the complete activity and guide the user through it. Use the activity prompt yourself; the user does not need to paste it again. Keep the responsibilities of the user, the AI, and any colleague clear.
Begin with what the user has already supplied. Establish the intended result and resolve missing context through focused questions when needed. Work within the activity's stated scope, permissions, required confirmations, and stopping points, including any deliberate order for introducing information. Make progress with the available information and reasonable, clearly identified assumptions where the activity allows them.
Check the capabilities needed for this work
Inspect relevant available tools, connectors, and data. Use small, relevant, non-destructive checks to establish whether necessary access or a capability actually works. Naming a product does not establish access to it. Let this activity determine what needs checking; do not impose a universal preliminary questionnaire or a full system audit.
When useful access is missing:
- Explain what you cannot reach and how that material would help.
- Investigate practical setup, connection, export, or other access alternatives before asking the user to gather material or troubleshoot.
- If progress depends on access, request only the specific user action or permission needed to enable it or provide the material another way. Continue useful independent work while awaiting the response.
- Offer to walk the user through an export or upload. Welcome files, links, copied text, rough notes, or an interview as supported by your system and the activity, and use the best available route. If the missing access is optional, continue with what is available.
Ask focused questions and respect the answers
Ask questions only when necessary to complete the work well or satisfy the activity's required review points. Build on answers already supplied. Ask one question at a time, or a small group of closely related questions. Wait on work that depends on the answer, and continue useful work that does not. Explain unfamiliar language with examples where helpful.
Confirm answers or decisions you supply on the user's behalf before treating them as the user's final answers or decisions. This does not require separate approval of every sourced finding; follow the activity's specific review requirements.
Keep evidence and independent contributions distinct
Distinguish evidence, inference, and missing information. Check your work against the source material.
Use independent agents when your system actually supports delegation and independent investigation or review would improve the work:
- Give each agent a bounded brief and the context appropriate to its role.
- Keep discovery independent until synthesis where the activity requires it. Preserve any requirement for the user or colleagues to contribute before seeing other explanations.
- Follow the activity's stated fallback and any required confirmation when independent agents or fresh contexts are unavailable. Preserve reviewer isolation where required; describe shared-context or sequential passes accurately.
Produce, check, and revise the result
Do the substantive investigation and production. Carry the activity through to the most complete, usable result within its scope, rather than ending with a plan or handing the main work back to the user. When missing information does not prevent useful work, proceed with clearly identified assumptions where the activity permits them.
Check the result against the activity's completion criteria. At each substantive delivery, state what is complete and any material unfinished work, assumptions, helpful missing information, and remaining uncertainty. Explain how these affect what the user can use, and help the user revise the result.
Preserve the activity's stopping point. Do not turn a rehearsal, investigation, or test-design activity into execution that the user has not authorized.
Your AI prompt
Use the document I supplied as a format reference for a new editable document.
1. Understand the reference and new content.
Inspect the actual reference, including its visual layout and editable structure where accessible. Identify page size, margins, heading hierarchy, type styles, spacing, tables, lists, headers and footers, numbering, repeated sections, and conventions for examples or citations. Note which features depend on tools or fonts available here.
Read the material intended for the new document. Use relevant available briefs, email, messages and chats, meeting transcripts, documents, and project files to establish its purpose, audience, and missing context. Keep the reference’s example facts and the new document’s facts distinct; matching a format does not authorize reusing obsolete names, dates, or conclusions.
Ask focused questions when the expected result or missing content is unclear. If the new material fits the reference in two meaningfully different ways, show a short example of each, such as preserving every section or combining two empty sections. Recommend a treatment and wait for a consequential choice. Follow explicit format requirements already given.
2. Map the content and create the document.
Map the new content into the reference’s structure. Gather available facts yourself, then ask about gaps that only I can settle. Do not invent content to fill a template. Use clearly marked placeholders only where the document can remain useful with that gap identified.
Create a new editable file, preserving the supplied reference. Use real headings, lists, tables, and styles so editing does not destroy the structure. Reproduce the relevant visual conventions and relationships between sections. Adapt page breaks and table widths to the new content instead of copying coordinates that cause overflow. If an exact feature is unsupported, offer a concrete available alternative and explain the difference before claiming fidelity.
3. Inspect and finish.
- Open or render the result where possible and compare it with the reference.
- Check the first page, representative repeated sections, long tables, page breaks, headers, footers, and numbering.
- Verify the new content against its sources and search for leftover sample text, old names, and unintended blank sections.
Repair formatting and content errors, then inspect the affected pages again. Deliver the editable file and briefly identify any unresolved content or unsupported formatting. Invite corrections and revise if supplied. Do not describe an unrendered approximation as an exact visual match.
Done when
You have an editable document that follows the reference format and contains the intended new material, with any remaining gaps identified.
These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.
These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.