Skip to content
Get in touch
Menu
Field Guide · level 2 · Everyday skills

How do you get a summary you can trust?

Name the reader, trace each point, and check what it left out.

5 min · try it 10 min · as of Oct 2026
Bring this to your team · Team workshopsTeach your team to ask for summaries they can trace and check before they forward. Get in touch
01

Very thorough

You asked for a summary. It came back longer than the report.

02

A summary is a map

A map that skips the cliff is worse than none. Four moves:

  1. Name the reader
  2. Trace each point
  3. Ask what's left out
  4. Check two yourself
03

Name the reader

Say who will read it, and what they'll decide. Then set the length.

04

Trace each point

Ask for the section and a quote behind each point, so you can check.

My pick for your own files

Gemini logoGemini NotebookAlso good: Claude logoClaude Projects

Built for answers drawn only from the files you add. It was called NotebookLM until July.

All my picks
05

Ask what it left out

And what it couldn't read: some tools skip a long PDF's charts.

06

Check two yourself

Before you forward it, find two quotes in the report. One off? Check them all.

07

Small map. Cliffs marked.

One reader, one page, each point traced, its gaps named. Now forward it.

Try it · 10 minutes

Summarise a public report

Use something public, nothing private.

  1. Attach a public report with the prompt below.3 min
  2. Find two of its quotes in the report.5 min
  3. Read what it says it left out.2 min

The prompt

Summarise the attached document for [who will read it], who needs to decide [what].
Keep it to [5 bullets].
After each point, give its section and a short quote from the document.
Then list what you left out, and anything you couldn't read, such as charts, tables or scanned pages.
Add nothing that isn't in the document.

Good looks likeThe quotes are really there, and the gaps are named.

In your assistant · as of Oct 2026 · Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini

Summarise with the source beside it

Menus move often. Missing something? A rollout, your plan, country or admin may be why.

  • CheckA named reader
  • CheckA quote per point
  • CheckWhat it left out

My pickMy Claude model rule: Opus 5.5 at High first, then Sonnet 5.5 at High or Extra high.

Use the tool your company approves for work documents. That rule comes before mine.

Claude

Attach the file, or ask inside Word

Attach
+thenAdd files or photos

Up to 20 files a chat. PDFs over 100 pages: text only, no charts.

Word
Claude for Word

Answers about your document come with clickable section citations. Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise.

Check

Ask which section and line each point came from.

Then open two of them yourself.

Anthropic doesn't recommend Claude for Word for final client deliverables without human review.

ChatGPT

Attach the file, or use ChatGPT for Word

Attach

Attach the file to your message.

Free: 3 file uploads a day. Images in PDFs are read on Enterprise; other plans read the text.

Word
ChatGPT for Word

Every plan, Free included. It can summarise the open document.

Check

OpenAI: “Check important facts, figures, citations, and edits before using or sharing a document.”

In Word it can't see other files on your computer: paste in the text it needs.

Gemini

Gemini Notebook for your own files; Gmail at work

Trace
Gemini NotebookthenA citation

Hover to see the full quote. Select it to see the quote in your source.

Attach
Add filesthenUpload Files

Up to 10 files a prompt. A very large file can miss details: Google suggests smaller files.

Gmail
Ask Gemini

Top right of Gmail: summarise a long thread. At work, on an eligible Google Workspace plan.

Google says Gemini Notebook “can make mistakes” and asks you to double check it.

Quick check · three questions

Did it stick?

  1. 1Your manager decides on Friday whether to renew a supplier. Which request gets the most useful summary of the 60-page contract?

    The answer: B A named reader and a decision tell it what matters, and a length keeps it short. Full detail rebuilds the contract, and its own read-back isn't a check.

  2. 2The summary says the project is on budget and quotes section 4. Before you forward it, you:

    The answer: C The pointer is there so you can check. Asking the AI again checks nothing: it tells it which way you lean, and a quote can still be wrong.

  3. 3You summarised a 300-page PDF report, and the summary mentions no charts at all. What next?

    The answer: A Some tools read only the text of a long PDF: Claude, for one, reads text only in PDFs over 100 pages. A longer summary can't cover what it never saw.
0 of 3 answered
What each tool can readSide note
Claude reads charts in PDFs up to 100 pages; past that, and in other documents, text only. ChatGPT reads images in PDFs on Enterprise only. Gemini can miss details in very large files.
Long documentsSide note
Anthropic's engineers warn that as the text grows, a model recalls it less accurately. Google suggests smaller files for better results. Summarise a long report part by part.
Summaries built into Google's appsSide note
On eligible Google Workspace and Google AI plans, Gemini summarises Gmail threads, Google Docs and Drive files. Google warns its features may suggest inaccurate information. Check them the same way.
Sources, checked 18 Oct 2026Source

Product details as of Oct 2026, each checked on the vendor's own page on 18 Oct 2026. Recheck by 18 Nov 2026. The examples in the pictures are made up for this lesson.

Free skillCheck a draft against its sourcesBring this to your teamTeam workshops · Get in touchBack to level 2, Everyday skills

Name the reader, trace each point, and check what it left out.

Next lesson · 15 minHow do you research with AI and keep the sources?