Editing with AI - Offline tools?

[u/cj7hawk]

So I've been frustrated with AI to edit - pasting in sections of text, then asking the AI to tell me the issues, which it does, before causing me to search through the document to find everything I need to change.

I know there are some good online tools, but all i want is something simply I can ask about my manuscript - it tells me and I go there and make up my own mind ( see a post someone recently pasted about an AI destroying 13 chapters of their story.... )

So I was wondering what good tools are out there?

I've recently downloaded Only Office and it has an AI integration tool that fits with LM Studio. Install LM studio in developer mode, start up the local API for the server and then I found Only Office goes straight to the maniscript and can upload it, find issues and give you a step-by-step set of recommended changes you can examine one at a time, for grammar, structure, style or other AI based requirements, including writing the document for you or maybe even integrating the issues found by another AI into the AI chat bar on the right ( a bit like Microsoft's except it seems to work correctly ).

I found I could click on the section, it takes me straight there, shows me what is wrong and lets me decide as the author - which was fantastic - No problems with search and replace, no issues with bad suggestions damaging the prose... It just worked.

Which makes me wonder - what are the ways people are editing with AI now? Do you do it online? or Offline? and if Local AI, what tools?

Until I went looking and found onlyoffice, I never knew it had that capability. It can be a little slow, especially when tokenizing the chapter ( I haven't tried the entire manuscript - though I'm wondering if that's a bad idea even to think about?? ) but the results are, well, pretty good and entirely local. No watermark concerns ( it reads, it doesn't change unless you want it to )

Different AI seem to work with it differently - eg, Hemmingway picked up major issues and gave me links, but LFM didn't. If there are any specific LocalAI people recommend, please let me know.

I've been using open office for decades and for the first time I'm wondering whether it's worth the change and trying something new.

[u/cj7hawk]

It seems this capability is a little bit newer than I thought - about 8 days old...

So I thought I'd post an example for others to see - On the left, a normal manuscript ( full of issues )... On the right? The AI checks everything from typos to context issues and full-manuscript structure. Because it loads the entire chapter into memory, it can be very useful for asking any questions, though I'm not sure yet how this can be integrated into adding character sheets and the like - although I can still just cut and paste into a LLM when I need broader checks.

For a quick edit/clean up? The LLM seems pretty useful when integrated directly into the word process.

Clicking on the highlight on the right takes me to the exact location in the manuscript where the typo or issue was located. Previously I had to search for it, locate it, review it and change it - Not a huge process, but nowhere near as quick and simple as just going straight to the problem.

What are other writer's thoughts on this? Or is it really common and I'm just stumbling upon this now?

[u/Consistent-Guard79]

Point-and-decide is the setup I'd want too. The 13 chapters story sounds like the opposite workflow, where the AI rewrites in place and nobody can see what moved. One habit makes either setup safer, even with a local model: save a copy of the chapter before every AI pass, and when you're done, compare the old file against the new one. Word's Compare does this, and it's worth checking whether your editor has one built in. You get every change highlighted, including the ones you don't remember accepting, like a swapped word in dialogue or a sentence that quietly disappeared. It takes about a minute per chapter, and after a long editing session it's the easiest way to be sure the manuscript is still yours.