Writing prompts that work

The Assistant does exactly what you ask — no more, no less. A vague request gets a vague design; a precise one lands close to what you pictured. This page is the recipe for prompts that work the first time.

Say what to change, not just what you want#

Think of each message as an instruction, not a wish. Lead with a concrete verb — add, restyle, move, align, replace — and name the element it applies to.

• Weak: "make this nicer"
• Strong: "restyle the headline in a bold condensed sans, and align it to the left margin"

If your request targets something already on the Canvas, select it first. The Assistant automatically focuses on your selection and shows a dashed Focusing on chip in the composer, so "make it bigger" knows what "it" is. One clear change per message reads far more reliably than a paragraph that mixes five asks together.

Give constraints#

Constraints are what turn a nice guess into the right result. The more of these you supply, the less the Assistant has to invent:

The Assistant respects your Canvas units and color mode, so if your document is set up in millimeters and CMYK, phrase measurements the same way. If you haven't set those yet, see Canvas size and units and Document setup and bleed.

Provide the exact copy#

The Assistant will happily write placeholder text — but it's your words that need to be on the label. Paste the real copy in quotes and it sets them verbatim:

Add a headline reading "Raw & Unfiltered" and a sub-line
"Wildflower Honey · Net wt 250 g" beneath it.

Anything you don't provide, it will invent, so give it the exact strings for names, prices, taglines and legal lines. The Assistant can also insert live text variables — page number, date, filename — which stay correct as your document changes.

Describe the style#

Direction goes a long way. Anchor the look with a mood, a palette, or an element to match:

• "minimal, lots of whitespace, one accent color"
• "bold retro poster — thick slab type, warm 70s palette"
• "match the style of the card I already placed"

If you want the same look across a whole session — your real colors, fonts and tone — pin a brand kit from the Assistant options. Once pinned, you can drop the color and font details from every prompt and just describe intent ("hero banner", "sale flyer"); the kit handles the rest.

Attach references#

Words can only carry a style so far. The paperclip Attach files button stages references directly in the composer:

• Images act as visual references — "match this layout", "use this logo", "pull the palette from this photo".
• Documents (PDF, Office files, plain text) hand over copy or specs the Assistant can read from — a spec sheet, a block of body text, a print brief.

You can attach up to a handful of files per request, each under a size cap, and any non-standard image format is auto-converted to PNG so it just works. Attachment support depends on the model you've picked — some models can't accept image or document files. See Choosing a model and thinking effort if the paperclip is disabled.

Reference elements already on the Canvas#

To point the Assistant at specific objects, select them, right-click, and choose Add to AI chat. That pins them as context chips that persist across messages — ideal for "restyle these three to match" or "swap the logo in this group". Click any chip to reveal that element on the Canvas. When nothing is pinned, the live Focusing on hint auto-attaches your current selection instead.

Iterate in small steps#

You rarely get everything in one turn, and that's fine. Short follow-ups build on the last result — "make it bigger", "more contrast", "now do the back", "continue". If a turn takes the design somewhere you don't want, don't fight it with corrections. Use Rewind to here on an earlier message to roll the design back to that point and branch cleanly.

Anti-patterns to avoid#

• Don't stack five asks in one sentence. Split them into separate turns.
• Don't rely on "it" with nothing selected — pin or select the target first.
• Don't expect copy you never supplied — paste the exact text.
• Don't over-describe when a reference would do — attach the image.

Where to go next#

Ready to put it together? Meet the Assistant covers the panel end to end, and Let the AI design from a print spec walks through a full, constraint-rich brief from start to export.