Inline Suggestions — Working With AI in the Document

First drafts get you started. Inline editing is where proposals get good. Instead of rewriting whole sections, you work with AI at the paragraph and sentence level — selecting text, requesting specific changes, and refining in place.

The Inline Editing Workflow

Inline editing is a conversation between you and the AI, anchored to specific text in your document:

Read and identify

Read through your draft. When something doesn't work — weak opening, vague claim, wrong tone, too long — highlight it.

Request a specific change

Tell the AI what you want: 'Make this more specific.' 'Shorten to two sentences.' 'Add data to support this claim.' 'Rewrite in active voice.'

Review the suggestion

AI proposes a revision. You accept, reject, or modify it. The change happens in the document, not in a separate chat window.

Move on

Once the text is right, move to the next section that needs attention. No copy-paste, no context switching, no reformatting.

Types of Inline Edits

Different problems call for different types of requests:

Tightening

'This paragraph is 150 words. Reduce to 80 without losing the key points.' AI is excellent at condensing while preserving meaning — especially useful when you're over page limits.

Strengthening

'This claim is vague. Make it more specific and add a supporting example.' AI adds detail and evidence from your organizational context.

Restructuring

'Move the conclusion to the opening and reorganize so the strongest argument comes first.' AI reflows the logic without you having to cut and paste.

Tone adjustment

'This sounds too formal. Make it warmer without being casual.' Or: 'This is too narrative. Make it more data-driven.' AI adjusts voice while preserving content.

Expansion

'Expand this bullet point into a full paragraph with specific details from our program.' AI fills in detail from your organizational context.

The Selection-to-Chat Pattern

The most efficient inline editing pattern: select text in your document, send it to the AI with an instruction, and get the revision back in place.

This is fundamentally different from the copy-paste workflow with general AI. You’re not switching between windows, losing formatting, or re-establishing context. The AI sees the selected text, understands its position in the document, and produces a revision that fits.

Inline editing is where AI writing becomes truly collaborative. You’re not generating a draft and then fixing it manually — you’re working with the AI at the level of individual sentences and paragraphs, shaping the document together.

Pro tip

Be specific in your edit requests. “Make this better” gives AI nothing to work with. “Shorten this paragraph to three sentences, keep the statistic, and end with the impact statement” gives it everything. The more precise your instruction, the more useful the suggestion.

When to Edit Manually vs. With AI

Not every edit needs AI. Some changes are faster to make yourself:

Factual corrections. If a number is wrong, just fix it. Don’t ask AI to guess the right number.
Small word changes. Swapping one word for another is faster by hand than through AI.
Structural moves. If you know exactly where a paragraph should go, cut and paste it yourself.
Voice corrections you can articulate. If you can hear how the sentence should sound, type it. AI is for when you know something is wrong but aren’t sure what the fix is.

In Grantable

In Grantable, inline editing works through the selection-to-chat feature. Highlight text in your document, click “Add to chat,” and tell the AI what you want. It edits the text in place, and a toast notification confirms the change with a link to see exactly what was modified. You can review every edit in the document’s diff view — full transparency on what the AI changed and what it kept.

Check your understanding

You're editing a needs statement. The second paragraph has good data but weak framing — it reads like a list of statistics without a narrative thread. What's the most effective edit request?

Key Takeaways

Inline editing lets you work with AI at the sentence and paragraph level — select, instruct, review, accept
Be specific: 'shorten to three sentences' beats 'make this better'
Use AI for tightening, strengthening, restructuring, tone adjustments, and expansion
Edit manually for factual corrections, small word changes, and cases where you know exactly what the fix should be

Next Lesson

Inline editing refines the writing. The Spot-Check Technique goes deeper — systematically verifying that every claim in your proposal is accurate, supported, and aligned with funder criteria.