Amazon has been shipping the Echo smart speakers for several years now, but the tech is still new to some of us. For example, I just got my first Echo, an Echo Dot. I’m still finding out what it can and can’t do (it can’t actually read my Kindle ebooks to me, but it is great at being aggravating).

While I have been putting the Dot through its paces, I also took some time to find ways that writers could use Alexa as the virtual replacement for the office assistant that many of us want but few can afford.

I couldn’t actually find very many current features, but I did find five.