Pin the exact output format with a labeled template
prompting basics
// what it does
When you need a specific shape, show it. Give a labeled template with placeholders and ChatGPT fills it in instead of inventing its own layout. This is far more reliable than describing the format in prose, and it makes the output easy to parse or paste downstream.
// prompt
> Extract the important entities from the text below. Desired format: Company names: <comma-separated> People names: <comma-separated> Specific topics: <comma-separated> General themes: <comma-separated>. Text: [paste text]// gotcha
Describing a format ("give me a nicely organized list") leaves the layout to chance; a literal template with field labels gets you the same structure every time, which matters when something else has to read the output.