Review Word Docs Without Opening Word

Add comments, highlights, and edits directly inside .docx files

AuthorAuthor

Samuel ROY & Olivier Legris
March 20, 2026

Hey everyone,

After last week’s Excel skill, we tackled another tool people still waste too much time in: Word.

You can now review Word docs in Alter, work directly on the file, and get back a new .docx with comments, highlights, and edits in place.

Meet the DOCX Skill

Drop word documents in your workspace with the docx skill enabled. Ask for a review, rewrite, cleanup, or restructure. Alter handles the document and returns a version you can actually use.

That means no copying text into chat, no rebuilding formatting by hand, and no losing context between the document and the feedback.

What it’s good for

  1. Contract review
    Upload a contract and ask Alter to flag risky clauses, add comments, and highlight the parts worth negotiating.

  2. Proposal cleanup
    Take a messy proposal or client doc and turn it into a cleaner, sharper version in Word.

  3. Internal docs
    Rewrite SOPs, memos, and reports without tearing apart the structure every time.

Why this matters

Most AI tools talk about the document.

Alter can work inside it.

So instead of getting a detached summary in chat, you get:

  1. Comments where the issue appears

  2. Highlights on the clauses that matter

  3. A new Word file you can review, share, or keep editing

That lowers the switching cost. It also makes the output far more usable.

How it works

  1. Create a workspace with your files

  2. Add the DOCX Skill

  3. Ask Alter what to do

  4. Get back a new .docx file with the result

Example prompt

Review this Word document and create a new .docx with comments and highlights added directly in the file.

Focus on:
- risky or one-sided language
- vague clauses
- payment terms
- ownership and IP
- termination rights

Keep the original untouched and return a reviewed version.

Use cases

  1. Legal and ops
    Review contracts and prep documents for negotiation

  2. Founders and sales
    Tighten proposals, agreements, and customer-facing docs

  3. Teams
    Edit internal documentation without rebuilding everything manually

What Word workflow should we solve next?

If you use Word for contracts, proposals, reports, or internal docs, reply and tell us where the friction is.

We’ll keep building around real workflows.

Olivier & Samuel

Full Changelog

New Features & Enhancements

  • DOCX Skill: Alter can now generate and review Word documents directly by adding comments, highlights, and edits inside .docx files without opening Word.

  • Meeting & Recording Controls: Meetings can now remain active for up to 30 minutes before low-level auto-stop, new experimental method to capture system audio: choose ProcessTap to record FaceTime and WhatsApp calls.

  • Workspace & Usage Improvements: Added Copy Name for workspace files and folders and fast mode cycling is less likely to switch you into the workspace unintentionally.

  • New Models: Added GPT-5.4-mini and GPT-5.4-nano

Bug Fixes & Stability

  • Floating Window & Memory: Removed crash-prone floating window constraints, reduced floating window crashes, and more aggressively discard conversation webviews to lower memory usage.

  • Meetings, Audio & Microphone Handling: Fixed auto-meeting detection across Teams and other apps, microphone input selection shows only physical devices, and the stuck microphone "processing" indicator is resolved.

  • Code Runner: Fixed various file not found errors when using skills.

  • Quick Actions, Hub & Notch Reliability: Restored quick action shortcuts, prevented duplicate notch submissions, only auto-execute the first quick action response, fixed canceled retry and escape-to-stop behavior in Hub, and resolved lingering notch windows after external display disconnects.

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