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Athena 101 · Lesson 09 · Work inside your Office files

In this lesson, you’ll work with Athena inside a Word file you already have, and approve every edit before it lands.You can ask about the file you’re working on without leaving Word, or moving it anywhere. Your Microsoft 365 admin adds Athena for your team. Then, on the Home tab, click Athena. The pane opens beside your document, and it already knows which file is open. Select a clause, and the chip shows what Athena can see. Click the chip any time to stop sharing it.You can have Athena change wording in your document, and nothing changes until you say yes. Ask for the change in plain words. Athena reads your selection first. Reading never needs your permission. Before it edits, the pane stops and asks: Allow Athena to edit this document? Click Allow, and the notice period changes on the page. Check the page afterwards. One Allow covers the rest of this conversation. If you click Decline, nothing changes, and Athena asks you what to do instead.Athena can draft new text for you, and you decide where it goes. Put your cursor where the clause belongs, and ask for a draft. Read the draft in the pane first. When it’s right, click Insert at cursor. The clause lands at your cursor, and nothing else goes in.Your team can work on the same agreement in Athena while you edit it in Word. Click Link document to Athena. When it says Live sync on, the two copies stay the same while the file is open. Edits made from Word can show a Word marker in Athena’s Activity, so you still see who changed what.The same pane works in Excel and PowerPoint, with the same rule. In Excel, select a range and ask about it. The chip shows the exact cells. A question gets its answer with no prompt, because nothing in the file changes. In PowerPoint, the chip shows the slide you’re on. Ask for a new slide. That changes the file, so the pane asks first. Click Allow, and the slide appears.Quick check. You click Allow on an edit. What does that cover? Every edit in this conversation. A new one asks again.Here’s how a legal team uses this. They keep their contract templates in Word. When a standard term changes, they select the clause and ask for the new wording. Each edit is approved in the pane, and the template keeps its own formatting.Try it. Select a paragraph in Word, and ask Athena to tighten it. Look for the Allow banner before anything changes.

Before you start

Upload these files from the Northwind starter kit: All three files in Lesson 09: Northwind carrier agreement.docx, Disputes.xlsx, and Weekly exceptions.pptx. Ask your admin to make Athena available inside your Office apps and prepare sign-in. If that is unavailable, make the same edits in Athena on the web and export the files.

Steps

1

Open Athena in Word

Click Athena in the Word ribbon and select a paragraph. Read the selection chip to check what you are sharing.
2

Approve an edit

Ask for a wording change. At Allow Athena to edit this document?, choose Allow or Decline; allowing covers edits in this conversation, so check the page afterward.
3

Place a draft yourself

Ask for a new clause and review it in the pane. Place your cursor where it belongs and click Insert at cursor.
4

Link the document live

Click Link document to Athena (live). When the live-sync confirmation appears, edits stay in sync while the file is open.
5

Use Excel and PowerPoint

Select a range in Excel and ask about it. In PowerPoint, ask for a slide; changes wait for approval, while reading does not.

Try it

Tighten this paragraph without changing its meaning.
Look for Allow Athena to edit this document? before anything changes.

Next

Turn a meeting into decisions