What this technique does
When you ask ChatGPT to put something in a table, naming the columns and just saying “as a table” give you different results. If you do not fix the format the AI picks one, and the column order and the field names change every time you ask, so you cannot line the second result up next to the first.
There are three things to fix. The shape (table, numbered list, prose), the fields and their order (the column names, verbatim), and the size (length, number of items). Settle what to write when a value is missing as well, and you also cut down on invented content filling the blanks.
Good example / bad example
Bad
compare three competitors and put it in a tableGood
Please compare three competitors in a table. The columns, in order, are "Company · Key features · Price · Free trial · Source". Keep each cell under fifteen words, and rather than leaving an unverified value blank, write "needs checking".The first table comes out with a different set of columns every time, and cells long enough to run off the screen. The second has the columns and the cell length fixed, so it pastes straight into a document, and the unknown values show up as “needs checking”, so you can see at once what still has to be looked up.
How to write it
- Please put this in a table. The columns, in order, are “{column names}”.
- Keep each item under {length}, and the whole thing to {number} items.
- If a value is missing, do not leave it blank — write “{TBD}”.
Watch out
Fix the format too finely and the content gets trimmed to fit the cells. For a topic that needs explaining, ask for a separate paragraph underneath the table.
Tables are good for comparison but wrong for writing that has a flow. Take an answer you need the reasoning and the process from as a table and the reasoning disappears.
Unfamiliar terms? See Aha AI: output-format