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Files, data and visual input

You use files as a verifiable source and check tables, images, and generated artifacts for their own types of errors.

After this chapterYou can analyze documents, spreadsheets, and visual input with source references, numerical checks, and an explicit quality report.
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5.1

First inventory a document

Have structure, version, scope, and missing components determined before asking for conclusions.

Start a document analysis with identification: title, date, version, author, page range, appendices, and visible limitations. Have the chapter structure and used definitions inventoried. This prevents a summary from ignoring an appendix, footnote, or differing version.

Then determine the purpose of use. A contract review, decision memo, and learning summary require different extractions. Request source references to page, section, or table. Check critical passages yourself in the original; a plausible page number can be wrong.

  • Document identity
  • Structure and scope
  • Purpose of analysis
  • Location per key point
  • Manual sampling
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In a quotation comparison, version date, scope, exclusions, price basis, and terms are first inventoried.

Try this prompt
Inventory this document for [decision]. Provide identity, structure, definitions, tables, appendices, missing parts, and possible version issues. Do not draw any conclusions yet. Refer to page or section.
Quick knowledge check

Why do you inventory before the analysis?

Your practical assignment

Inventory a document of at least five pages and check five locations.

5.2

Summarize without losing decision nuance

Adjust voice selection and level of detail to the moment of use and retain conditions, uncertainty, and exceptions.

A good summary is not a uniform reduction. Select what the user needs: decision points, obligations, risks, actions, or concepts to learn. Retain modal words such as can, must, likely, and under conditions; they change the meaning.

Separate what comes literally from the source from interpretation and recommendation. For long documents, request multiple levels: a short management summary, a decision note, and a detailed table with references. Check that numbers, units, periods, and exceptions have not been distorted.

  • Moment of use determines selection
  • Preserve conditions
  • Source and interpretation separately
  • Figures and units exactly
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An executive summary shows decision, financial impact, risk, owner, and deadline; a lawyer also needs clauses and exceptions.

Try this prompt
Make three summaries of [document]: five lines, one decision page, and a detailed table. Preserve conditions, figures, units, and uncertainty. Label source fact, interpretation, and recommendation.
Quick knowledge check

What must a summary not silently change?

Your practical assignment

Compare your own summary with the source and record five meaningful omissions.

5.3

Interpreting and checking spreadsheets

Check the diagram, formulas, units, and missing values before you formulate business insights.

A spreadsheet is more than visible numbers. Inventory worksheets, columns, data types, formulas, filters, hidden rows, and the period used. Make clear whether an empty field means unknown, not applicable, or zero.

Have totals and sample calculations independently recalculated. Check denominators, VAT treatment, currency, rounding, and duplicate records. Separate description from causality: a simultaneous increase does not prove that one variable caused the other. An insight states the formula, source fields, period, and limitation.

  • Schema and data types
  • Formulas and denominators
  • Empty is not automatically zero
  • Sample check
  • Correlation is not causation
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A conversion rate is recalculated from numerator and denominator; revenue growth is not attributed to a single campaign without evidence.

Try this prompt
Analyze this spreadsheet for [decision]. Inventory sheets, fields, formulas, units, periods, empty values, and possible duplicates. Recalculate five checks and provide insights with formula, source fields, and limitation.
Quick knowledge check

Which interpretation of an empty field is safe?

Your practical assignment

Check a spreadsheet with at least three formulas and document every deviation.

5.4

Images and screenshots as incomplete sources

First describe what is visible and separate that from interpretation or suspected cause.

An image contains only a crop, time, and resolution. First literally inventory any visible text, objects, graph axes, or error messages. Mark unreadable or cut-off parts. Only then ask for interpretations and possible explanations.

Check axes, scale, period, source, and missing zero points in charts. In software screenshots, the interface version may differ. Never use an image analysis as the sole basis for identity, medical diagnosis, or other high-impact decisions.

  • Visible versus derived
  • Crop and resolution
  • Ace and king
  • Interface can change
  • No high-impact identification
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In case of an error message, the exact text is first read; then hypotheses and safe diagnostic steps follow.

Try this prompt
Analyze this image for [purpose]. Divide your answer into: visible, unreadable or out of view, interpretation, alternative explanation, needed additional context, and safe next check.
Quick knowledge check

What is a visible observation?

Your practical assignment

Analyze a graph and an error message and label each sentence as observation or interpretation.

5.5

A quality report for file analysis

Provide alongside the analysis also coverage, controls, uncertainties, and unread components.

A professional result shows what has been investigated and what has not. Create a quality report with file identity, analysis task, used components, successful controls, deviations, uncertainties, and manual samples. Indicate when tables, scans, formulas, or attachments could not be read reliably.

Link important conclusions to sources. Provide a separate list of values that have been combined from multiple files or modalities. A green quality report only means that the defined tests passed; it does not prove that every possible issue has been ruled out.

  • Coverage
  • Proof of inspection
  • Deviations
  • Unread sections
  • Remaining limitation
This is how you can use this

A report states that text pages and three tables were analyzed, but handwritten appendices were not reliably legible.

Try this prompt
Create a quality report for [file analysis] with identity, coverage, controls, deviations, uncertainties, manual sampling, and explicitly not-tested components. Link key conclusions to locations.
Quick knowledge check

What does a successful set of checks prove?

Your practical assignment

Create a quality report for one analysis and have a reviewer find one missing check.

Chapter assignment

Bring everything together

Analyze one document and one spreadsheet for the same decision. Provide inventory, source extractions, five numerical checks, a separate interpretation, and one combined quality report.