Copilot Across Microsoft 365: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams

Copilot Across Microsoft 365: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams

Microsoft Copilot is designed to reduce the overhead in every major professional workflow. Here's how to use it effectively in each app.

Copilot in Word

**Starting a document from scratch:**

Click the Copilot icon → "Draft [document type] about [topic] for [audience]"

**Rewriting existing text:**

Select text → Copilot → "Rewrite this to be more concise" or "Make this more formal"

**Asking about your document:**

"What are the key arguments in this document?" or "What's missing from this proposal?"

**Best Word prompts:**

• ›"Write a 2-page executive summary of this [paste long document]"
• ›"Identify any inconsistencies or contradictions in this document"
• ›"Suggest a stronger conclusion for this report"

Copilot in Excel

**Analyze data:**

Click Copilot in the ribbon → "What are the top 3 trends in this data?"

**Create formulas:**

"Create a formula that calculates the year-over-year growth rate for column C"

**Generate charts:**

"Create a chart showing revenue by region over the last 4 quarters"

**Highlight insights:**

"Highlight the cells where the value is more than 20% above the average"

Copilot in PowerPoint

**Generate a presentation from text:**

"Create a 10-slide presentation based on this Word document" (then paste or link)

**Add a slide:**

"Add a slide showing a timeline of key milestones from 2020 to 2024"

**Summarize a presentation:**

"Summarize this presentation in 5 bullet points"

Copilot in Teams

**During a meeting:** Copilot takes real-time notes and can answer "What did [person] say about [topic]?" while the meeting is happening.

**After a meeting:** "Give me a recap of the meeting. What decisions were made? What are my action items?"

**In Teams Chat:** "Catch me up on what I missed in this chat over the last 2 days"