Microsoft Add-in

The Brightwave Microsoft Add-in brings AI-powered research and editing into Microsoft 365. Chat with Brightwave in a taskpane inside Excel, Word, or PowerPoint, and the agent can read your open document and make edits directly — no copy-pasting between apps.

Getting started

Install the add-in from the Downloads menu in your Brightwave user menu, or open Brightwave in Microsoft Marketplace. Once installed, open the Brightwave taskpane from the ribbon in any supported Office app.

How it works

The add-in opens a chat panel inside your Office app. When you send a message, Brightwave's agent can see the contents of your open document and execute edits through Office's native APIs. Edits happen live — you see changes appear in your document as the agent works.

Ask the agent to analyze data in your spreadsheet, draft content in a Word document, or build slides in a presentation. The agent has full context from your Brightwave project's data room, so it can pull research findings directly into your Office documents.

Tool approvals

Before the agent makes changes to your document, the add-in asks for your approval. Each edit action shows a confirmation prompt where you can:

• Allow once — approve the specific edit and let the agent continue
• Always allow — skip future approval prompts for that type of non-destructive action within the current project and Office app

If you deny an action, the agent is notified and can suggest an alternative approach. You can manage your always-allow preferences in the add-in settings.

Plan acceptance, skill approvals, and sharing confirmations can also be handled directly in the add-in panel — no need to switch to the web app.

Excel

The agent can read and write to your spreadsheets:

• Read and inspect — read cell values and formulas, inspect range metadata, and detect used regions automatically
• Write and append — write values and formulas to ranges, append rows to existing data, and clear ranges
• Copy — copy cell values, formulas, and formatting between ranges
• Sheets — create and rename worksheets
• Tables and charts — insert Excel tables and charts, update existing charts, and format chart axes
• Named ranges — create and manage named ranges for structured references
• Formatting — format cell ranges (number formats, fills, fonts, borders, alignment, column widths), apply conditional formatting (color scales, data bars, icon sets, cell value rules), and sort or filter data
• Data validation and cleanup — set data validation rules on cell ranges and remove duplicate rows from datasets
• Insert workbook — insert sheets from a Brightwave-generated spreadsheet into your active workbook

Word

The agent can draft and edit Word documents:

• Read and navigate — read full document content and structure, find text, and inspect the current selection
• Write content — insert text and headings, replace paragraphs, and find-and-replace across the document
• Images — insert images into documents
• Tables — insert, format, and update tables with structured data
• Lists — format and structure bulleted and numbered lists
• Comments — add review comments to document content
• Formatting — apply paragraph formatting and styles
• Headers, footers, and page numbers — add headers, footers, and page numbering
• Footnotes — insert footnotes into documents
• Bookmarks — create and manage bookmarks for structured document navigation
• Track changes — accept or reject tracked changes programmatically
• Templates — apply document templates and themes
• Table of contents — create and update a table of contents from document headings
• Structure — insert page breaks and organize document layout
• Insert document — insert content from a Brightwave-generated Word document into your active file

PowerPoint

The agent can build and edit presentations:

• Slides — create, duplicate, reorder, and delete slides
• Content — edit titles, text boxes, add images, and find-and-replace text across slides
• Text search — find text across all slides and shapes to target edits precisely
• Speaker notes — add or update speaker notes on any slide
• Charts — insert charts into slides from structured data
• Shapes — insert, format, and group shapes, lines, and native tables; detect and work with selected shapes
• Backgrounds — set solid slide backgrounds
• Layout — move, resize, reorder, and format slide elements; assign slide layouts
• Batch edits — execute multiple changes in a single operation for complex slide updates
• Insert slides — insert slides from a Brightwave-generated presentation into your active deck

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