How to ask questions about a PDF on Mac
Ask what the document says about something, and get an answer drawn from the document itself.
Search finds a word. A question finds an answer. “What notice period does this require?” is not a search term, and in a sixty-page agreement the relevant clause may not contain the word “notice” at all.
The assistant is part of Premium, so it carries a small lock in the document actions panel and in the menu bar. The lock is a label rather than a barrier — you can open the feature and see what it does before deciding to unlock it. Reading and every page operation stay free.
The assistant runs on your Mac using Apple's on-device intelligence. That is what keeps the document where it is, and it means the feature is available only on Macs where Apple Intelligence is available.
Asking a good question
| Instead of | Ask |
|---|---|
| “What is this about?” | “What obligations does this place on the supplier?” |
| “Find notice” | “How much notice is needed to terminate, and by whom?” |
| “Summarise section 4” | “What changes if payment is late?” |
| “Is this good?” | “What does this say about liability limits?” |
The pattern: ask about the thing you need to know, not about the document. A specific question gets an answer you can check; a vague one gets a paraphrase of the introduction.
Checking the answer
An answer drawn from a document can still be wrong: it can miss a clause elsewhere that qualifies the one it found, read a defined term as an ordinary word, or state confidently something the document only implies. Use the answer to find the passage, then read the passage. That is the workflow — the assistant is a faster way to the right page, not a substitute for reading it.
The practical habit: for every answer that matters, search for a distinctive phrase from it and read the clause it came from in full, with what surrounds it.
What it is good at
- Finding where something is dealt with in a long document with no outline.
- Answering a question whose words are not in the document — “who pays for shipping” when the document says “carriage”.
- Pulling together something addressed in three places.
- Getting oriented in an unfamiliar document quickly.
What it is not for
- Advice. It reports what a document says. Whether that is good for you is a different question, and often a professional one.
- Anything it was not given. It answers from this document, not from the law, the contract it refers to, or the email chain around it.
- Deciding. For anything with consequences, the document is the authority.
Why on-device matters here more than anywhere
Asking a document a question means giving something the whole document. The alternative implementations send the contents over a network to be processed. For a settlement agreement, a medical report, an HR file or a client matter, that is not a trade-off — it is a reason the feature could not be used. Doing it on your Mac removes the question entirely.
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask questions about a PDF on a Mac?
Yes. The assistant in Verso answers from the document's own contents, on your Mac.
Is my document sent anywhere?
No. It runs on your Mac using Apple's on-device intelligence, which is why it needs a Mac where that is available.
Can I trust the answers?
Use them to find the passage, then read the passage. An answer can miss a clause elsewhere that qualifies the one it found. The assistant is a faster route to the right page, not a substitute for reading it.
How is this different from searching?
Search finds a word. A question finds an answer — including when the document uses different words from the ones you would have searched for.
Can it give me advice about a contract?
No. It reports what the document says. Whether that is good for you is a different question, and often one for a professional.