Microsoft 365 Copilot is built into the Office apps and can work with your files, emails and meetings (only what you already have access to). Here’s what it’s good for in each app.
App
Try
Word
Draft from a prompt or another file (type / to reference files), summarise, rewrite sections
Excel
Formula columns, highlight and filter, charts and pivots from plain-English requests (works best with data in a Table)
PowerPoint
Create a deck from a Word file, add slides, summarise a deck
Outlook
Summarise threads, draft replies, coach tone
Teams
Meeting recap, decisions, action items, catch up on chats
How it uses data
With a work account, Copilot respects your existing permissions and, per Microsoft’s enterprise terms, your prompts and data aren’t used to train the public models. It can surface any file you can access, which makes tidy permissions in SharePoint more important.
💡 In Excel, convert ranges to Tables (Ctrl+T) before asking Copilot anything. It works far better on structured tables with clear headers.
⚠️ Copilot can quote outdated or wrong documents if they’re in your files. Check which sources it used (references are listed) before relying on an answer.
Practice
If you have Copilot, try one prompt per app from the worksheet and note the results.
📎 Practice files for this article
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Lesson 7 worksheetPrompts and exercises for this lesson.
