Part 3 | Practice — Handing files to AI
Chapter 7. Handing files to ChatGPT and Claude
Key points
- Upload a file and have it summarised, rewritten or reorganised
- Prompt with "for whom, for what, in what form" in mind
- Use ChatGPT and Claude for what each does best
How they differ from Gemini Notebook
If Gemini Notebook is the assistant that looks things up within what you gave it, ChatGPT and Claude are the craftsmen who work on what you gave them.
- summarise
- rewrite (simpler / more specialist / shorter)
- reorganise (bullets / tables / a single A4 page)
- convert to another form
Anything that involves reshaping is their strength. Using both extends what you can do with local files considerably.
Three things to try first
Use fictional or anonymised material for all of these.
1. Make a patient handout gentler
You are an experienced physical therapist with a reputation for patient education. Rewrite the attached shoulder home exercise sheet so a patient in their eighties could follow it, with less jargon and in plainer language. A gentle tone that does not stoke anxiety.
2. Fit material onto a single A4 page
Condense the attached home exercise sheet to fit on one A4 page. Use headings and bullets, so that purpose, method, repetitions and cautions are visible at a glance.
3. Summarise a long document
You are an experienced physical therapist. Summarise the key points of the attached guideline into three items for junior therapists, focused on what matters in the clinic.
That alone turns the AI from someone to consult into someone working alongside you.
The basic prompt pattern (a reminder)
The role setting from Foundations applies to file work too. The trick to quality is not sophistication but being specific.
- give a role: "You are an experienced physical therapist."
- name the reader: "for an older patient"
- specify the form: "in bullets / on one A4 page / as a table"
- add the purpose: "so that they can keep it up safely at home"
You do not need all of them. Simply keeping "for whom, for what, in what form" in mind lifts the output a level.
Choosing between ChatGPT and Claude
As a subjective impression at the time of writing, for file work:
| Tool | Impression on file work | Where it suits |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Balanced; tables, data handling, image generation | CSV aggregation, tables, broad reshaping of material |
| Claude | Excellent at long text and natural prose | Summarising long PDFs and manuscripts, rewriting, structuring |
Performance shifts over time, of course. Try both and pick whichever sits better in your hand. Either one alone changes the work enough.
Try this
Upload one (anonymised) document you have to ChatGPT or Claude and run one of the three above. Look at the output, then adjust in conversation: "simpler", "use bullets". That back-and-forth is what working alongside feels like.
Chapter 7 summary
- Gemini Notebook looks things up; ChatGPT and Claude reshape. Different jobs
- File work too is decided by "for whom, for what, in what form"
- Tables and data lean ChatGPT, long text and prose lean Claude; pick what fits your hand