Use Copilot in Word and PowerPoint when the button is there

What you'll need

• Word and PowerPoint signed in with the same account
• A Copilot button in the corner of the document. Microsoft's help says that button shows for eligible Microsoft 365 and Copilot licenses, and not for everyone
• An outline or a Word file you are allowed to use

No button? Use Build a PowerPoint outline and make the slides yourself. That path does not need a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

Step 1: In Word, draft from an outline you wrote

Open a blank document or put the cursor where the new text should go. Open Copilot. Microsoft's Word help says you describe the audience, the point, and the length, and you can type / to point at a file if your account offers that.

Draft this section from my outline only.
Audience: [who]
Length: [about how many words]
Outline I wrote:
[paste]

Do not add facts, quotes, or numbers that are not in the outline.
After the draft, list any sentence that needed a fact I did not give you.

Read it. Keep, discard, or ask for a tighter version. If you only want one paragraph changed, select that paragraph and ask for a rewrite of the selection, not a new document.

Step 2: Summarize a long document you are allowed to share

Summarize this document for someone who will not read it all.
Give me:
1. Five bullets
2. Decisions
3. Deadlines and names, only if they appear in the file
4. One sentence on what the file does not say

Quote the heading or line each deadline came from, so I can check it.

Open the file and find those lines. A summary you did not spot-check is how wrong dates get forwarded. The longer version of this habit is Summarize a long report.

Step 3: In PowerPoint, ask for a short deck, then edit

Open PowerPoint and the Copilot button.

Create a 7-slide presentation from this outline for a non-technical audience.
[paste the outline, or point at the Word file if the box lets you]

Each slide title should be a full sentence.
No more than 3 bullets on a slide.
Do not invent statistics.
The last slide is the decision I need: [one sentence].

If Copilot will not create the file, Microsoft's help notes that some creation features need an extra Designer license on work accounts. Stop. Paste the outline into slides yourself using Build a PowerPoint outline.

Step 4: Present from notes you could say

Ask Copilot for speaker notes only after the slides match the outline. Delete any note that adds a fact. Then practice out loud. A school or class version of that practice is Practice a presentation, and it works without Copilot.

Common mistakes

• Treating a missing button as a prompt problem. It is usually a license or admin setting.
• Letting a deck invent a market size or a percent. Delete any number you did not supply.
• Uploading a confidential Word file into a personal chat because PowerPoint's button failed.
• Keeping Copilot's first design. The words are the job. The theme can wait.

Privacy: what not to paste

Files you open with a work account follow your company's Microsoft settings. Do not download a confidential deck and upload it to a personal AI account. If the document has a sensitivity label, leave it on. Copilot is not a reason to remove it.

Director check: look before you use it

• Is the Copilot button in the app, not just a browser chat? If not, switch to the outline workflow.
• Does every number on the slides trace to your outline? If not, delete it.
• Did the summary's deadlines match the document? Check two of them.
• Could you give this talk if the slides failed? If the story is only in the chat, it is not ready.

One extra tip

Write the story in the outline workflow even when Copilot is available. A seven-slide story you directed is better than a twenty-slide file you accepted. The Work hub has both.