ProPrompt for Everyday Office Work

Target Audience: All office workers, project managers, assistants, HR, marketing, and anyone looking to use AI for everyday office tasks.

Getting Started – AI in Your Workday
Emails & Communication
Meetings & Minutes
Documents & Presentations
Converting Office Files to AI-Friendly Formats
Agent: Office Assistant & Helpdesk
Cheat Sheet for Office Work

1 Getting Started – AI in Your Workday

Difficulty: ⭐ Easy

You don’t need technical knowledge to use AI productively. The secret: give clear instructions – just like you would to a new colleague.

Example – Simple Summary

Summarize the following text in 5 bullet points.
Audience: Management with limited time.
Language: English, professional tone.

[Paste text here]

Why does this work? Format (bullet points), audience (management), and tone (professional) are clearly defined.

The Golden Rules

Rule	Description
🎯 Be specific	“Create a 3-sentence summary” instead of “Summarize this”
👥 Name your audience	Who is the output for? Management? Clients? Team?
📝 Define the format	Table, bullet points, prose, email format
🎤 Set the tone	Formal, informal, friendly, matter-of-fact
🔄 Iterate	Result not perfect? Refine the prompt

2 Emails & Communication

Difficulty: ⭐ Easy

Example – Drafting a Professional Email

Draft a professional email:

## Parameters
- From: Max Miller, Project Manager
- To: Client (Mr. Schmidt, CEO)
- Subject: Project Status Update Q1 2026
- Tone: Professional, positive, solution-oriented

## Content
- Project is on schedule
- Milestone "Beta Launch" has been reached
- Next milestone: Go-Live on April 15
- Request for a review meeting next week

## Constraints
- Maximum 150 words
- Business correspondence standards
- Include greeting and signature placeholder

Example – Rephrasing a Difficult Message Diplomatically

You are an experienced communications consultant.

Rephrase the following message diplomatically and professionally:

Original: "The project is delayed because the client didn't
deliver the requirements on time."

## Requirements
- No blame assignment
- Constructive and solution-oriented
- State facts without sugarcoating
- Suggest next steps

Provide 2 variants: one for internal communication, one for the client.

Communication Flow Diagram

flowchart LR
    A[📝 Draft] --> B{Audience?}
    B --> C[Internal]
    B --> D[Client]
    B --> E[Public]

    C --> C1[Direct, factual<br/>Details allowed]
    D --> D1[Professional, diplomatic<br/>Solution-oriented]
    E --> E1[PR-reviewed, neutral<br/>No internal details]

    C1 & D1 & E1 --> F[Review]
    F --> G[Send]

    style A fill:#e3f2fd
    style F fill:#fff9c4
    style G fill:#c8e6c9

3 Meetings & Minutes

Difficulty: ⭐⭐ Medium

Example – Creating a Meeting Agenda

Create a structured meeting agenda:

## Meeting Details
- Title: Sprint Review Q1 2026
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Attendees: Product team (8 people), Product Owner, Stakeholders
- Goal: Present sprint results, gather feedback

## Desired Format
| Time | Topic | Owner | Goal |
|------|-------|-------|------|

## Requirements
- Include buffer time for discussion
- Each agenda item with a clear goal
- Max 7 agenda items
- Last item: Capture action items

Example – Meeting Minutes from Notes

You are an experienced project assistant.

Create professional meeting minutes from the following rough notes:

## Raw Notes
- Budget was approved (150k)
- Maria takes frontend lead
- Go-Live deadline: April 15
- Problem: API partner has 2-week delay
- Workaround: Use mock API, develop in parallel
- Next meeting: Monday 10 AM
- Peter to clarify server capacity by Friday

## Format
### Minutes – [Meeting Title]
**Date:** [Date]
**Attendees:** [List]

#### Decisions
| # | Decision | Responsible |

#### Open Items / Risks
| # | Topic | Status | Deadline |

#### Action Items
| # | Task | Owner | Due |

#### Next Meeting
[Details]

4 Documents & Presentations

Difficulty: ⭐⭐ Medium

Example – Creating a Presentation Outline

Create an outline for a PowerPoint presentation:

## Context
- Topic: "AI Strategy 2026 – Opportunities and Roadmap"
- Audience: C-suite and department heads
- Duration: 20 minutes (max 15 slides)
- Goal: Secure budget approval for AI pilot projects

## Desired Format
For each slide:
| Slide # | Title | Key Message | Visuals | Speaker Notes |
|---------|-------|-------------|---------|---------------|

## Requirements
- Executive-friendly (minimal text, clear messages)
- Data-driven (KPIs, ROI estimates)
- Call-to-action on the last slide
- Story arc: Problem → Solution → Value → Next Steps

Example – Restructuring a Document

You are an experienced Technical Writer.

Restructure the following text into a professional document:

[Paste text or reference with #file]

## Requirements
- Clear heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3)
- Executive summary at the top (max 5 sentences)
- Key points as a numbered list
- Table for comparisons
- Glossary for technical terms at the end

Presentation Storytelling Arc

flowchart LR
    A[Problem<br/>Slides 1-3] --> B[Solution<br/>Slides 4-7]
    B --> C[Value & ROI<br/>Slides 8-11]
    C --> D[Roadmap<br/>Slides 12-14]
    D --> E[Call to Action<br/>Slide 15]

    style A fill:#ffcdd2
    style B fill:#fff9c4
    style C fill:#c8e6c9
    style D fill:#e3f2fd
    style E fill:#f3e5f5

5 Converting Office Files to AI-Friendly Formats

Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐ Hard

LLMs cannot directly read .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx files. Here are the key conversion paths:

Quick Reference

Source	Target	Tool
Word (.docx)	Markdown	Pandoc
Excel (.xlsx)	CSV	Save As → CSV or Pandoc
PowerPoint (.pptx)	Markdown	Pandoc or PDF export → Pandoc
PDF	Text / Markdown	Pandoc or pdftotext

💡 Tip: Everything works with a single tool – Pandoc (free, no Python needed). Many AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) also accept .pptx uploads directly.

Word → Markdown (Pandoc)

Pandoc is a free command-line tool (pandoc.org):

pandoc input.docx -t markdown -o output.md

Excel → CSV

Option 1 – Built into Excel:

Open file → File → Save As
Choose format: CSV (Comma delimited)
Save – done

Option 2 – Pandoc (even without Excel installed):

pandoc data.xlsx -t markdown -o data.md

💡 Pandoc can read .xlsx directly and output it as a Markdown table.

PowerPoint → Markdown

Option 1 – Pandoc (recommended):

Pandoc can read .pptx files directly and extract slide content as Markdown:

pandoc presentation.pptx -t markdown -o presentation.md

Option 2 – PDF intermediate step (better formatting for complex slides):

In PowerPoint: File → Export → Create PDF, then:

pandoc presentation.pdf -t markdown -o presentation.md

Option 3 – Direct upload:

Many AI tools accept .pptx files directly:

ChatGPT (Plus/Team/Enterprise)
Claude (Pro)
Google Gemini

Simply upload the file and prompt: “Summarize this presentation.”

💡 Tip for large presentations: If the result is incomplete, convert via the PDF route first – this usually provides the most complete extraction.

PDF → Text

# Option 1: Pandoc
pandoc input.pdf -t markdown -o output.md

# Option 2: pdftotext (part of poppler-utils)
pdftotext input.pdf output.txt

💡 For scanned PDFs (images): Apply OCR first, e.g. with the free tool OCRmyPDF: ocrmypdf scan.pdf scan_ocr.pdf

Quality Checklist After Conversion

Conversion Pipeline

flowchart LR
    A[Office File] --> B{Format?}
    B --> C[Word .docx]
    B --> D[Excel .xlsx]
    B --> E[PPT .pptx]
    B --> F[PDF]

    C --> G[Pandoc]
    D --> H[Save As CSV<br/>or Pandoc]
    E --> I[Pandoc directly<br/>or PDF export]
    F --> J[Pandoc / pdftotext]

    G & H & I & J --> K[Markdown / CSV / Text]
    K --> L[AI-Ready]

    style A fill:#e3f2fd
    style K fill:#fff9c4
    style L fill:#c8e6c9

6 Agent: Office Assistant & Helpdesk

Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐ Hard

What Is an Office Agent?

An office agent can autonomously handle recurring tasks:

Answer questions (FAQ)
Analyze and prioritize emails
Summarize documents
Pre-qualify IT issues

Example – IT Helpdesk Agent (Copilot Studio)

# Role
You are IT-Helper, the internal IT support assistant for Contoso Corp.

# Capabilities
- Resolve common IT issues (password reset, VPN, printers)
- Search the internal knowledge base
- Create support tickets
- Answer FAQs

# Behavior
- Respond in English
- Use friendly, patient language
- Ask clarifying questions when the issue is unclear
- Provide step-by-step instructions
- Use numbered lists for instructions

# Boundaries
- No changes to production systems
- No access to personal data
- For hardware issues: escalate to physical support

# Topics & Trigger Phrases
| Topic | Trigger Phrases |
|-------|----------------|
| Password Reset | "forgot password", "can't log in" |
| VPN | "VPN not working", "remote access", "work from home" |
| Printer | "printer not printing", "paper jam" |
| Software | "install program", "need update" |
| Email | "Outlook not working", "email not received" |

# Escalation
If you cannot resolve the issue, create a ticket with:
- Problem description
- Steps taken so far
- Priority (Low/Medium/High)

# Output Format
## IT Support

**Issue:** [Summary]

### Solution
1. [Step 1]
2. [Step 2]
3. [Step 3]

### Did this help?
- Yes → Glad it worked!
- No → I'll create a ticket for our IT team.

Agent Toolchain: Office Automation

flowchart TB
    A[Email / Teams Message<br/>Incoming] --> B[Classification Agent]

    B --> C{Category?}
    C --> D[IT Issue]
    C --> E[Request / Approval]
    C --> F[Report Request]
    C --> G[General Question]

    D --> D1[IT Helpdesk Agent]
    E --> E1[Approval Workflow<br/>Power Automate]
    F --> F1[Report Agent<br/>→ SharePoint]
    G --> G1[FAQ Agent<br/>→ Knowledge Base]

    D1 & E1 & F1 & G1 --> H[Response to<br/>Sender]

    style A fill:#e3f2fd
    style B fill:#fff3e0
    style H fill:#c8e6c9

Practical: Power Automate + Copilot Studio

[Teams message "I need a new laptop"]
  → [Copilot Studio Agent] (detects: Hardware Request)
    → [Power Automate Flow]
      → [Create form in SharePoint]
      → [Email manager for approval]
      → [Confirmation to employee via Teams]

7 Cheat Sheet for Office Work

Quick Prompt Templates

Task	Prompt Starter
Draft email	`"Draft a professional email to [recipient] about [topic]."`
Summarize text	`"Summarize the following text in [X] bullet points for [audience]."`
Create minutes	`"Create meeting minutes from these notes: [notes]"`
Write agenda	`"Create a meeting agenda for [topic], [X] minutes, [Y] attendees."`
Plan presentation	`"Create a slide outline for [topic], max [X] slides."`
Rephrase text	`"Rephrase the following text to be [more formal/shorter/friendlier]."`
Translate	`"Translate the following text to [language]. Tone: [professional/informal]."`
Create checklist	`"Create a checklist for [process/task]."`

Context Checklist – Never Forget!

Audience defined? (Management, Client, Team)
Tone set? (formal, friendly, matter-of-fact)
Format specified? (table, bullets, prose)
Length limited? (words, sentences, pages)
Language stated? (English, German)
Context provided? (company, project, situation)

Back to overview: 🏠 Home · Fundamentals (DE) · Fundamentals (EN)

Created by Justin Szczepaniak · GitHub Project · LinkedIn

ProPrompt for Everyday Office Work

Table of Contents

1 Getting Started – AI in Your Workday

Difficulty: ⭐ Easy

Example – Simple Summary

The Golden Rules

2 Emails & Communication

Difficulty: ⭐ Easy

Example – Drafting a Professional Email

Example – Rephrasing a Difficult Message Diplomatically

Communication Flow Diagram

3 Meetings & Minutes

Difficulty: ⭐⭐ Medium

Example – Creating a Meeting Agenda

Example – Meeting Minutes from Notes

4 Documents & Presentations

Difficulty: ⭐⭐ Medium

Example – Creating a Presentation Outline

Example – Restructuring a Document

Presentation Storytelling Arc

5 Converting Office Files to AI-Friendly Formats

Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐ Hard

Quick Reference

Word → Markdown (Pandoc)

Excel → CSV

PowerPoint → Markdown

PDF → Text

Quality Checklist After Conversion

Conversion Pipeline

6 Agent: Office Assistant & Helpdesk

Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐ Hard

What Is an Office Agent?

Example – IT Helpdesk Agent (Copilot Studio)

Agent Toolchain: Office Automation

Practical: Power Automate + Copilot Studio

7 Cheat Sheet for Office Work

Quick Prompt Templates

Context Checklist – Never Forget!