amber in Word, PowerPoint and Excel: the Office add-in

What is the amber add-in for Office?

The amber add-in brings amber straight into Word, PowerPoint and Excel. A chat opens next to your file, where amber writes texts, creates slides or analyzes data. amber uses everything your team has set up: your company knowledge, your actions and your agents.

For administrators: Deploy the add-in

You deploy the add-in once for your whole organization. Your colleagues then find amber in Word, PowerPoint and Excel automatically and don't have to install anything. It works the same way as the Outlook add-in. A single manifest file deploys amber to Word, PowerPoint and Excel at once.

Requirements

• Microsoft 365 with Word, PowerPoint and Excel

• An account in the Microsoft 365 admin center that can deploy apps, for example a Global Administrator

• The address of your amber environment, for example your-domain.ambersearch.de. You'll see it in the address bar when you open amber in your browser. If in doubt, ask your amber contact person.

Step 1: Build the manifest link

The link consists of your amber address and the path /office/manifest.xml:

https://your-domain.ambersearch.de/office/manifest.xml

Replace your-domain with the domain of your amber environment. If you open the link in your browser, you'll see the manifest file as XML. If you see an amber page that just keeps loading instead, the address is wrong. Check the domain or ask your amber contact person.

Step 2: Upload the add-in in the admin center

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.

2. Open Settings › Integrated apps.

3. Click Upload custom apps.

4. Under App type, select Office Add-in.

5. Select Provide link to manifest file, paste your link and click Validate.

6. Review the permissions. The add-in requests only one: ReadWriteDocument. It allows amber to read and change the open file. Click Next.

Step 3: Assign users

Choose who gets amber:

Click Next, then Finish deployment.

Note: It can take up to 24 hours, in some cases up to 72 hours, for amber to appear in everyone's ribbon.

Step 4: Verify the deployment

Open Word, PowerPoint or Excel as a test user. amber appears on the far right of the Home tab. If the icon is missing, check:

• Can the manifest link be reached from your network?

• Is the user assigned to the group you deployed amber to?

• Have at least 24 hours passed since the deployment?

For users: Use amber in Office

Step 1: Open amber

Open a document, presentation or workbook and click amber on the far right of the Home tab. The amber pane opens on the right.

No amber icon? Click Add-ins › More Add-ins, open the Admin Managed tab and select amber. If amber isn't listed there, your IT team hasn't deployed the add-in to you yet.

Step 2: Sign in

Click Sign in. In the new window, sign in the way you usually sign in to amber:

• Microsoft account: Click Continue with Microsoft (SSO).

• Work email: Enter your address and click Next. If your organization uses email login, you'll receive a one-time code.

You only need to sign in once. If it gets stuck, click Cancel / try again.

Step 3: Allow changes

Before amber changes your file, it asks in the chat and you confirm each change. If you want amber to apply changes directly, click the settings icon (sliders) in the input field and turn on Auto-approve. This is also where you choose whether amber uses your company knowledge and web search.

Step 4: Get started

At the top, you switch between Chat and Search. To get you started, amber suggests three tasks: Summarize, Check for errors and Improve. Or type what you need into the Ask amber for help… field.

amber edits your file directly. If the result isn't right yet, tell amber in the chat what to change.

Tips and examples for each app

Word

If amber should only edit part of the document, name it precisely, for example "the second paragraph".

• "Make the introduction shorter and friendlier."

• "Write a summary of this concept, 80 words max."

• "Summarize the document in five sentences and save it as an email draft to Anna." (uses your Outlook action)

PowerPoint

Describe the topic, audience and number of slides. If your presentations should always follow your corporate design, use the PowerPoint from template skill with your slide template.

• "Create five slides for the first meeting based on the proposal for customer X."

• "Adapt the slides for a technical audience."

• "Translate slides 3 to 6 into German."

Excel

If you're referring to specific cells, name the range, for example "A2 to D50". Check formulas and figures briefly before you pass them on, because amber can make mistakes.

• "Write a formula in column D that sums revenue by region."

• "Explain the formula in cell F12."

• "Clean up the table: remove duplicate rows and standardize the date format."