Say what shape you want the answer in
Ask for a table, five bullets or 100 words and you get it. Leave it out and you get whatever the AI picks.
Compare these three software vendors.
Compare the three vendor proposals below for our new scheduling tool. Give me a table with one row per vendor and these columns: yearly cost, setup time, support hours, and the biggest drawback. Under the table, add three bullet points on which one you'd pick and why. Keep the whole answer under 200 words. [paste the three proposals]
Why it works
The AI has no idea whether you need a quick scan, a slide or a full write-up, so it guesses, and it often guesses long. Naming the format, the length and the structure takes a few seconds and saves you reshaping the answer by hand. It also makes answers easier to compare when you ask the same thing again later.
Try it now
Click a highlighted part and type your own details. Press Enter to jump to the next one, then copy.
[What you want done]. Format it as [table / bullet list / short paragraph / numbered steps], with [the columns, sections or points you need]. Keep it under [number] words.
Variations
For a slide
Give me a slide title of no more than eight words and four bullets of no more than twelve words each.
For a skim-reader
Start with a one-sentence answer in bold. Then give up to five bullets with the details. No intro and no closing summary.
For a spreadsheet
Give me the result as comma-separated values with a header row so I can paste it straight into a spreadsheet.
Based on: Google, "Prompt design strategies: response format". Last checked October 3, 2026.
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