Harvey for Word: How to Use

Discover the power of Harvey by drafting contract language directly in Microsoft Word.

Last updated: Oct 8, 2025


Overview

Harvey for Word helps with everything from day-to-day edits to structured contract reviews. You can draft with AI, get real-time answers, or run your playbooks to enforce standard all right in Word.

A few practical ways to enhance your drafting and review process with Harvey:

  • Run a query over specific portions or your entire document using Assistant
  • Get tailored suggestions from Harvey to edit a specific clause, or your full document
  • Pull precedents from Vault
  • Flag and review non-compliant clauses with Playbook review

Note: For the best performance, we recommend using a Windows computer with Harvey for Word. If you have a Mac, try using Word Online following the steps in our guide, Harvey for Word: How to Download and Install.


The fundamentals of Harvey for Word are:

  • Ask — pull insights or generate suggestions
  • Edit — draft changes using suggested edits
  • Playbooks — apply your organization’s playbooks to review contracts
  • Workflows — apply a repeatable set of steps that makes complex tasks faster and more consistent

Tip: When prompting in Ask and Edit modes, start with Ask mode and query until suggestions reflect the targeted changes you’re looking to make. Then, switch to Edit mode to implement those changes.


Using Ask Mode

Ask mode brings in Harvey's Assistant directly to Word to help with ideation and analysis. You can ask questions on highlighted text or the full document without needing to access Harvey in your browser.

  1. Type your query in the composer in the right sidebar, (e.g., "What are the risks with this clause?”) or, choose an existing prompt from the Prompt Library as shown in the image below.
    Image of selecting prompt library in harvey for word add-in
  2. (Optional) Click the + icon to include precedent documents from Vault or from a local folder to inform Harvey's responses. You may also have the option to select Web Search as a knowledge source if it’s enabled in your workspace.
  3. (Optional) Click the Magic Prompt to enhance your query so that results are more accurate and relevant.
    Image of selecting magic prompt in harvey for word add-in
  4. Select Ask mode, then click the arrow to run your query.

Tip: You can ask follow up questions until you’re satisfied with the answer. Then, select Edit, next to Ask, and Harvey will make those changes.

Watch how it works

Here’s a short walkthrough showing Ask Mode in action:


Using Edit Mode

In Edit mode, you can make changes to your Word document through Harvey's suggestions and edits. Redline your document, either over specific text or over the full document. Highlight text if you want focused edits, or toggle on “Document-wide editing” and then give Harvey natural language instructions (e.g., “Make this more in line with the uploaded precedent terms.”).

Key Features

  • Highlight up to 5,000 characters to make focused edits to a specific paragraph or clause
  • Toggle on "Document-wide edits" to edit the whole document. We don’t recommend using this feature for documents over 100 pages at this time.
  • Prompt Harvey to populate or edit tables and Harvey will suggest text to fill in or amend content within tables.

Follow the steps below to get started.

  1. Select text you’d like to edit, or place your cursor where new content should go.
  2. Add your instructions in the query box.
  3. (Optional) Click the + icon to upload a precedent to guide Harvey’s suggestions. You may also have the option to select Web Search as a knowledge source if it’s enabled in your workspace. For Edit mode queries, you can view sources of information in the thinking state dropdown.
  4. Select Edit mode, then click the arrow to run your query. Harvey will consider the specific legal context, jargon, and instructions provided to generate precise suggestions.
  5. Review and apply changes. Auto-apply the suggestions, or review them individually to choose which ones to apply to the selected text.
    1. Accepted changes are applied as redlined tracked changes in the document, while dismissed suggestions are not applied.

Watch how it works

Here’s a short walkthrough showing Edit Mode in action:

Sample use cases

Here are a few prompt ideas for testing out this feature:

  • Mark up this document to be more in line with the terms agreed to in uploaded precedents
  • Make updates based on meeting notes
  • Replace all instances of Party X with Party Y
  • Fill out this template in accordance with the precedent

Using Playbooks

Playbooks in Harvey streamlines contract review in Word by automatically applying your company’s established positions on documents. Learn how to apply them by reviewing Harvey for Word: Playbooks Guide.


Using Workflows

Apply a workflow to execute tasks more efficiently. Try one of the following workflows to get started.

Redact

Instantly anonymize sensitive information across a document.

  • Catches 95-99% of the PII that should be redacted
  • Of the redacted material, 95-99% is actually PII
  • You can select any combination of preset redaction categories before generating redlines
  • The original document will be unchanged, Harvey creates a new redacted copy

Translate

Automatically translate a Word document into the language of your selection.

  • Note: this workflow is designed for documents using a single language. Multi-language documents may have varying degrees of success.

View History

If you’d like to revisit or continue in-progress work, you can access previous threads through viewing history.

  1. Click the history icon at the bottom right to open the historical log of threads.
    Image of thread history in harvey for word
  2. Click into a log to open up the thread history.

Save to Vault

Quickly save your updated document to Vault using the Save button.

image of saving word doc to vault

How Does Uploading a Precedent Improve Results?

When you upload a precedent(s), Harvey can automatically suggest changes to clauses, ensuring they align with successful language from past documents. When drafting or reviewing, leveraging proven precedents helps streamline language, ensuring efficient, consistent results. You can review and selectively apply these precedent-based suggestions to achieve optimal outcomes with greater confidence.

Example: If a strong non-solicitation clause is needed, and previous agreements (e.g., ABC123 and DEF456) have proven effective, Harvey will suggest edits that incorporate similar language. This approach enables drafters to rely on language with a proven track record to meet client needs.

Please be aware of the following file limits:

  • File size: Upload up to 5 files at a time, with 20mb limit on each.
  • File types supported: .docx and .PDF.

Note: If uploaded from Vault, all Vault sizes and file types are accepted.