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AI Writing Tips: Templates vs Recipes with David Deutsch
Published May 2, 2023 · 156 views on YouTube
Key takeaways
- Jasper's recipe section lets you build fully custom, freeform prompts inside Boss Mode for longer, more engineered content.
- Jasper's templates come with prompts already engineered behind them, so you don't have to build the prompt logic yourself.
- The dynamic template is a newer Jasper feature that starts from a simple idea (like a keynote speech topic) and then prompts you to fill in more details, with Jasper doing the prompt engineering in the background.
- The more detail and precision you provide to a dynamic template, the better the output it produces.
- You can take the outline or output from a dynamic template and move it into Boss Mode to keep refining it as your own custom recipe.
What is the difference between a Jasper template and a Jasper recipe?
A Jasper recipe is a freeform prompt you build yourself from scratch inside Boss Mode, giving you full control over the prompt engineering. A Jasper template, including the newer dynamic template, already has prompts engineered behind it, so Jasper prompts you for the details it needs and handles the prompt engineering for you.
How does a Jasper dynamic template work?
You start by telling the dynamic template what you want, for example a keynote speech outline and starter script for a dog training topic. Jasper then prompts you, the human, to fill in more specific details it needs, such as a title, key points, personal anecdotes, and long-lasting benefits. The more detail and precision you provide, the better the dynamic template performs.
- Open the dynamic template and describe what you want to create, such as a keynote speech outline and starter script.
- Jasper prompts you for the next pieces of information it needs, based on the type of content you’re producing.
- Fill out the requested fields, including a title, key points, personal anecdotes, and any additional info such as a website.
- Jasper generates a formatted output that you can edit directly, similar to editing a document.
- Optionally, take the resulting outline or prompt and move it into Boss Mode to build it out further as a custom recipe.
Can Jasper reference a website you type into a template?
As of this recording, the presenters did not believe the dynamic template itself could pull information directly from a URL you typed in, such as a website address entered as additional info. They noted that Jasper Chat could reference and link to sites you bring up, and speculated Jasper might not be far from supporting direct site uploads or references for content generation.
When should you use a template instead of building your own recipe?
Templates make sense when you don’t need to know the exact prompt to use, or when you have one prompt you rely on so often that a template already fits your workflow. Building your own recipe makes more sense when you want full control over the prompt for a specific, repeated need. A dynamic template output can also serve as a starting point that you move into Boss Mode to shape into your own recipe.
Full video transcript
Darby asks David to explain templates compared to recipes, and David offers to show the difference directly inside Jasper. Logged into Jasper, David navigates to the recipe section, where you can start your own recipe from scratch and enter Boss Mode. He describes recipes as a more freeform space for engineering prompts and producing longer content.
Templates, by contrast, already have prompts engineered behind them. David highlights the dynamic template, a feature that had just come out recently. With a dynamic template, you can start with almost anything, for example a keynote speech outline and starter script for dog training. The more detail and precision you provide up front, the better the dynamic template performs.
David explains that Jasper is doing prompt engineering in the background, so instead of you prompting Jasper, Jasper starts prompting you for the next pieces of information it needs to help complete the content, based on the initial idea you gave it. This process can change significantly depending on the type of content being produced.
Working through the dog training example, David fills in a title (“The Art of Dog Training”), key points such as “secrets to successful dog training,” personal anecdotes like going from hating dogs to becoming a top trainer, long-lasting benefits of dog training in a dog’s life, and additional info including a placeholder website, www.darbiesdogs.com. He notes that you have a fair amount of room in these fields, up to 600 or 400 characters, and that Jasper is handling in the background the kind of prompt engineering you would otherwise need to do yourself in a tool like ChatGPT.
David then shows that the output is formatted and editable directly on the page, similar to editing a document, and that the same process would apply if you wanted an email instead. Darby asks whether Jasper can actually go look at the website David typed in. David says he doesn’t believe the dynamic template does this as of the recording, but that Jasper Chat does reference and link to sites you bring up, and he speculates Jasper may not be far from supporting direct site uploads for content generation, along with more consistent persona and voice matching.
Once the outline is generated, David points out that it can also function as a prompt you could use to expand the content further, and that you can take it and move it into Boss Mode to build your own recipe from there. He frames the choice between templates and recipes as a matter of fit: dynamic templates work well when refining an idea without needing to know the underlying prompt, while building a recipe makes sense when you already know the one prompt you rely on and want it to fit directly into your existing workflow.