For Word documents
AI for Word documents — summaries with the receipts.
Sidenote is a Chrome extension that summarises and chats with your Word (.docx) files. Read them where they live via your OneDrive or SharePoint connection, or upload a one-off file — then ask a question and click a citation to land on the exact paragraph that proves the answer.
The problem
The answer is in the document. Reading all 40 pages to find it isn't the plan.
Word documents are where the long-form thinking lives — reports, contracts, proposals, minutes, specs. They're also where it gets lost. The clause you need is on page 31, the decision is buried in the minutes, and search inside Word only gets you so far.
Sidenote reads the .docx for you — in your browser, on the file you already have open — and answers the question you actually asked, with a citation you can verify in one click.
How it works
How Sidenote reads your Word documents.
Working across a set of related files? Bundle them into a Collection and query the whole set at once — citations name the source file and paragraph.
Use cases
What people ask a Word document — and how Sidenote answers.
- “Give me the TL;DR of this 40-page report.”A long .docx becomes a short, cited summary — every claim links back to the exact paragraph it came from, so you can check it in a click.
- “What does this contract say about termination?”Sidenote finds the clause across a sprawling agreement and quotes the line, with the surrounding context, rather than guessing.
- “What were the actions from these minutes?”It reads the meeting notes and pulls out the decisions and owners, citing the paragraph where each was recorded.
- “Summarise this proposal before my call.”Turn a dense Word proposal into the three things that matter — scope, price, timeline — each pointing at the section it lives in.
- “What changed in this policy document?”Ask what a handbook or policy .docx says about a topic and get the relevant clause quoted, instead of scrolling for ten minutes.
- “Explain this technical spec in plain English.”Simplify a jargon-heavy Word spec into language you can act on — with citations so you can verify nothing was invented.
Read-only by design
You choose what it reads. Nothing else.
When you read Word files from Microsoft 365, Sidenote connects through the Microsoft Graph with read-only access, scoped to the files you open — there's no tenant-wide crawl and no copy of every document sitting on someone else's server. Uploaded files are processed only to answer your questions, and a document is only ever read once you open it.
Your documents stay in your account. Content lives behind row-level security in our UK (eu-west-2) Supabase region — no two accounts can read each other's chunks. Anthropic and Voyage AI both run with no-training defaults on the API tiers we use; we never fine-tune models on user content.
Two ways inRead in place via OneDrive / SharePointConnect Microsoft read-only and open a Word document in your browser. Nothing to download, nothing to re-upload — Sidenote reads the file where it already lives and cites the paragraph. Upload a one-off .docxFor a file that isn't in a connected source, upload it to the web app and chat with it the same way — with the same click-to-source citations on every answer.
Connect your Word files, or upload them.
Most Word documents live in Microsoft 365. Sidenote reads them in place — the same connector that powers Sidenote for SharePoint and OneDrive. For anything that isn't in a connected source — a .docx a colleague emailed you — upload it to the web app and ask away.
FAQ
Common questions about Sidenote for Word documents.
How do I summarise a Word document with Sidenote?
Two ways. If your .docx lives in OneDrive or SharePoint, connect that read-only and open the document in your browser — Sidenote reads it in place. Or upload the file directly to the web app. Either way, open the side panel and ask for a summary; every line of the summary carries a citation that jumps to the exact paragraph it came from.
Does Sidenote work with .docx files?
Yes. Sidenote handles Word documents (.docx) alongside PDFs, web pages and connected sources like Confluence, Notion and Google Docs. Word files are read either through the Microsoft Graph (OneDrive / SharePoint, read-only) or by uploading the file to the web app.
Do I have to upload my Word files?
Not if they live in Microsoft 365. Connect OneDrive or SharePoint read-only and Sidenote reads the document where it already lives — no copy to download, no upload step. Upload is there for one-off .docx files that aren't in a connected source, like something a colleague emailed you.
Are the answers accurate, or does it make things up?
Every answer is grounded in passages retrieved from your actual document, and each claim must cite one. Claims the model can't support against the source are dropped server-side before you see them — so a Word summary stays anchored to what the document really says, and you can click any citation to read the original paragraph.
Is my Word document used to train AI models?
No. Anthropic (the model provider) and Voyage AI (the embedding provider) both run with no-training defaults on the API tiers Sidenote uses, and Sidenote never fine-tunes models on user content. Your document is used only to answer your own questions, stored in a UK (eu-west-2) region with row-level security isolating every account.
Can it handle long Word documents and tables?
Yes. Long reports, contracts and specs are chunked and retrieved a passage at a time, so a 40- or 100-page .docx is no problem. Bundle several related documents into a Collection to ask questions across the whole set at once — citations still name the source file and paragraph.
Try it on your documents
Make your Word docs answer back.
Add Sidenote to Chrome, connect OneDrive read-only or upload a .docx, open the document, and ask for the summary you need. Free tier forever, 7-day Pro trial — no card required.
Read-only · Connect OneDrive or upload a file