OpenAI is consistently including new options to ChatGPT to make it extra practical for on a regular basis wants. The just lately added Canvas function — unveiled in October — has reworked my ChatGPT workflow, and as of this week, it is out there to all ChatGPT customers without spending a dime, with some updates.
Canvas is a brand new interface that makes collaborating in your writing and coding tasks simpler with ChatGPT.
How you can use ChatGPT to create: Code | Excel formulation | Essays | Resumes | Apps | Charts and Tables
Throughout the fourth day of 12 days of OpenAI, the place the corporate unveils a brand new function day by day, it was introduced that OpenAI-developed Canvas is coming to all internet customers, no matter plan. Canvas shall be constructed into GPT-4o natively, which means you possibly can name on the device as an alternative of going to the toggle on the mannequin selector.
In the event you use ChatGPT as a co-editor in any capability, you’ll by no means once more use ChatGPT with out this function. Do not imagine me? The idea is finest understood visually, so stick to me. Here is how Canvas works.
The interface
To get began, simply let ChatGPT know you wish to use Canvas to reply your question. The AI will then let you know to enter what you might be engaged on, and when you enter your undertaking, you will notice the magic occur.
For my instance walk-through, I will use an essay I revealed as an undergrad since I do not use AI instruments to edit or write my ZDNET articles in any capability. I copied and pasted the essay textual content into the textbox with the immediate: “Are you able to assist me edit this piece?”
As you possibly can see beneath, as an alternative of simply outputting a revised model beneath the preliminary immediate, ChatGPT with Canvas robotically opened a brand new interface. My edited undertaking was positioned on the proper aspect of the display screen, whereas my preliminary immediate was on the left, with a textbox out there to ask further questions.
With this interface, regardless of what number of questions you ask or what number of edits are made, your undertaking will all the time stay in the identical spot on the proper, supplying you with simple visibility as to what the textual content appears like after every edit and the way it fares subsequent to the unique.
So, what makes the Canvas interface a game-changer? Usually, if you ask ChatGPT to revise the textual content, the AI outputs the brand new model as the following message, making it troublesome to match the unique and edited piece side-by-side and preserve monitor of the adjustments.
For instance, with the common interface, in the event you ask one thing like, “Are you able to revise this cowl letter?’ after which comply with up by asking to revise one particular paragraph, ChatGPT may output the brand new paragraph, forcing you to travel to piece each generations collectively. This strategy is inconvenient, particularly in the event you change between each variations and there’s numerous dialogue in between.
The brand new interface is useful in the event you use it for a coding activity and wish to preserve monitor of the adjustments. Canvas additionally permits you to run Python code immediately in Canvas, permitting ChatGPT to execute coding duties reminiscent of fixing bugs.
Though ChatGPT has superior writing abilities, it is nonetheless an AI liable to hallucinations, so it is helpful to double-check edits. Protecting monitor of the edits can be helpful as a result of it helps you be taught from the adjustments and probably implement them subsequent time. This strategy additionally prevents you from having to scroll up and down repeatedly by your dialog to seek out strategies and edits.
The shortcuts
One other game-changing factor of the Canvas function is the brand new shortcuts. On the web page the place your undertaking lives, a button within the lower-right nook — represented by a pencil — consists of 4 one-click shortcuts that may rework your undertaking.
The writing shortcuts assist customers alter lengths, change studying ranges, add emojis, and “add remaining polish”, which checks for grammar, readability, and consistency. The coding shortcuts can assessment code, add logs, add feedback, repair bugs, and port to a language. The buttons are a fast and environment friendly approach to implement your adjustments with out textual content prompts.
Here is one other handy device (and my private favourite): you possibly can spotlight parts of your undertaking for particular adjustments. All you want to do is spotlight traces of your textual content or code, and one other set of shortcuts will seem.
This time, Canvas lets you change the formatting with choices reminiscent of daring or italicize, and immediately asks ChatGPT for assist with that particular part.
As soon as the edit on that part is full, the adjustments shall be mirrored within the bigger undertaking, holding the remainder of the textual content intact and solely altering the areas requested by the person. It is satisfying to see one portion of your residing undertaking change. This strategy could be helpful for resumes, cowl letters, or different job software supplies.
What concerning the high quality of the edits? As a result of Canvas makes use of GPT-4o — OpenAI’s most superior, well-rounded mannequin — the edits are beneficial and enhance the general high quality of the textual content. In the event you ask for a normal edit, Canvas will verify grammar and spelling (as Grammarly does), and syntax.
My favourite manner to make use of the function, which I’ve defaulted to virtually day by day because it launched, is for sharpening private e-mail correspondence. Typically, getting the phrases out completely is troublesome, particularly when sending chilly emails. So, I drop my draft into ChatGPT (with GPT-4o Canvas activated) and ask the device to shine my textual content.
Relying on the outcomes, I’ll go to the right-hand aspect of the web page and both add in-line textual content myself, after which ask ChatGPT to shine the e-mail, or spotlight a component I do not like and use the shortcut to specify how I need that space modified.
