This tutorial covers the Microsoft 365 Copilot, accessed through a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. This is distinct from the consumer Copilot, which is a separate product with some overlapping features.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is powered by three key features.
First, Work IQ, which is the intelligence behind Microsoft 365 Copilot. It securely uses your work context, such as files, meetings, messages, and tasks, to deliver relevant help in the moment. So it knows about your specific organization, and your work.
Second, the Dynamic Action Button (DAB), which is a consistent, easy-to-find entry point that opens Copilot right where you’re working. If you’re starting with a blank document, the dynamic action button knows this, and changes its behavior accordingly.
Third, agentic capabilities. We’ll demonstrate the power of this feature during these modules. Copilot can work with you to draft, refine, and edit directly in the app you’re working in.
I’ll assume you already know how to launch Word, open and save documents, navigate with your screen reader, and use the ribbon with the Alt key.
Throughout this tutorial I’ll be using Narrator. The keystrokes and behaviors I describe mostly also work with JAWS and NVDA, with only minor differences in how the screen reader phrases what it announces.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is continuously improving, and the experience you have today may not exactly match the screens, menu options, or screen reader announcements described in this tutorial. Features are regularly updated in response to customer feedback, including feedback from people who use assistive technologies.
Although the interface may change, the fundamental skills remain the same: creating content, editing documents, summarizing information, asking questions about your documents, and working collaboratively with AI. The goal of this tutorial is to teach those skills and concepts so that you can confidently use Copilot even as the product continues to evolve.
What you need
To use Copilot in Word, you need a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription, and your administrator needs to assign you a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Once those pieces are in place, there are two ways to work with Copilot in Word.
Let’s first discuss the Backstage view. This is the screen you reach by default when you launch Word or select the File tab from within a document. Microsoft has integrated Copilot directly into this view, so you can get AI-powered assistance before you even open a file.
You reach the Backstage view in two ways: by launching Word, which takes you there automatically unless you have disabled this feature, or by selecting the File tab when you already have a document open. Once you are in the Backstage view, you will see your recent files listed, and this is where Copilot comes in. Users can start drafting a document from backstage view by pressing Tab or Shift tab to the Home Group, “Draft with Copilot: Create prompt, edit, Describe the document you'd like to write, Alt, F, H, Y 1, Suggestions available”. User can give a prompt or describe the topic and hit enter or press tab to the “Create button” and then hit enter. This will generate a draft on the topic with all the details and puts focus in the canvas.
The second, a most common, way to work with Copilot is to invoke it from within a new or existing document, by pressing Alt+C. That’s easy to remember, C for Copilot.
When you press Alt+C, Copilot provides context-aware suggestions to get you started. These suggestions adapt to what you have selected or where your cursor is. For example, if nothing is selected, Copilot might suggest broad drafting or brainstorming prompts; if text is selected, suggestions may include rewriting or summarizing that selection.
I have an empty document open. Watch what happens when I press Alt+C.
PAUSE FOR NARRATOR. We are now placed in a menu. The first option in that menu is Copilot Chat. Instead of selecting Copilot Chat, you can also press up-arrow, and Word will offer some prompts to help you get started writing your document.
For now, though, I’ll press Enter on Copilot Chat.
This has invoked the Copilot pane in Word. Once that is done, you can move between interacting with Copilot and editing your Word document, by pressing F6 and Shift+F6.
By default, editing will be enabled and users can start giving prompt to edit or draft new document. As we’ll see shortly, Copilot is a handy and powerful companion for modifying your document, but there may be times when you choose not to have that feature enabled. For example, if you are towards the end of your writing journey with a document, you may not wish to have the document modified, but you may have questions about the document. In that case, you may choose not to allow editing. When focus is on the edit field in which you type to Copilot, you can change whether Copilot is allowed to edit your document or allow chat only by pressing Shift+Tab and change the mode to “Chat only.”
I can also Tab to other controls, including a button to reference a file. I’ll cover all of that in the next section.
The Copilot Chat experience inside Word, deeper
Let me circle back to the chat pane, because there’s more to it than first appears.
When you open the Copilot pane with Alt+C, focus lands in a region you can navigate with Tab and arrow keys. The pane includes:
- A prompt box at the bottom, where you type your requests.
- A chat messages list, where past prompts and responses live.
- A plus button or input options menu, which lets you attach files, view prompt suggestions, add an image, or invoke an agent.
- A modes combo box, which is where Edit with Copilot lives, along with potentially other options as chat only.
- Citation links within responses, which take you back to source material in the document or in referenced files.
If a long response is being streamed in and you want to hear the latest content, use your screen reader’s Read All command to read from the top of the response.
Inside Copilot Chat, slash commands work just as they do in the Draft dialog. Type forward slash, then begin typing the name of a file, person, or meeting, and the picker filters in real time. This is the fastest way to ground a question in a specific source.
Drafting from a blank page
Let’s say you have a blank document, and you want Copilot to give you a head start. We’re going to write an essay on the importance of Braille.
I’m in a blank document, and I’ve already pressed Alt+C.
Before I proceed, it’s important to be sure that allow editing is enabled.
I’ll type my prompt:
Write an essay on the Braille code. It should include background about who invented it and why, a brief history of the code’s adoption, whether it has retained relevance as technology has advanced, and what the future may hold.
Copilot has now written an essay, and inserted it into my document. I can review Copilot’s activity and responses at any time. Before using Copilot, ensure Narrator’s scan mode is turned OFF (press Caps Lock+Spacebar if necessary) when you need to type text or navigate by Tab within the Copilot pane. Conversely, turn scan mode ON when you want to read static text (like Copilot’s responses) with the arrow keys. This will allow you to switch between interacting with controls and browsing content smoothly.
I can press F6 until I’m back in my document or to review it. User can accept the changes using Done button or reject changes using Undo button on the canvas.
Having done so, I would like to make several changes which Copilot can take care of effortlessly. I’ll press F6 until I’m back in the Copilot pane.
Now, I’ll type this prompt.
“For easier navigation, modify the document so it has sections, separated by heading level 2, with heading text that reflects the subject of the forthcoming section.”
Let’s review the document.
Now we have a document with heading levels that is efficient to navigate with a screen reader.
As I review the document, I notice that when referring to the code, the word “Braille” is not capitalized. In the National Federation of the Blind’s style guide, we always capitalize Braille, in the same way that Morse, Celsius, and other codes named after their inventors are capitalized. To fix this, I could use search and replace, but I can also use Copilot.
I’ll enter the following prompt:
“Ensure that every occurrence of the word Braille has an uppercase b”.
We can get much more clever with Copilot. (Demonstration instruction that re-orders a couple of paragraphs from the essay.)
Copilot has infinite patience, so there is no need to accept the first draft. It is an exceptionally good first-draft engine, but it is at its best when you treat it as a junior colleague who needs a little direction.
Drafting with references to your own files, emails, and meetings
This is where the business version of Copilot really earns its keep. Drafting from a blank prompt is useful, but drafting that’s grounded in your organization’s actual content is genuinely transformative.
First, when you’re in the Copilot Chat pane, type a forward slash. As soon as I press it, Narrator announces a list of suggested files, recent items, people, and meetings, drawn from my Microsoft 365 Graph. I can begin typing the name of the file, person, or meeting, and the list filters in real time.
The second way is the Add and Manage sources button. After opening the Copilot chat pane, I Tab to the Add and Manage sources button and press Enter. A picker opens that lets me browse OneDrive and SharePoint.
You can reference up to twenty items, and Copilot can process files up to 1.5 million words or 3,000 pages. For business users, you can also reference an entire folder.
Copilot will only reference files you already have permission to access, and the data stays inside your Microsoft 365 boundary. It is not used to train public-facing AI models.
Rewrite, Auto Rewrite, and adjusting tone
I have a paragraph open that I want to refine. I select the paragraph using Shift plus the down arrow, or Control Shift plus the down arrow if I want to grab whole paragraphs at a time. Once I’ve made the selection, User has 2 ways to rewrite or adjust: I can press Alt+C or ALT+I.
Since I now have text selected, Alt+I opens a pop up with an edit box and prepopulated suggestion list that includes Auto Rewrite, make shorter and structure or refine and other actions depending on what your build supports.
I arrow down to Auto Rewrite and press Enter. After a moment, Copilot returns several rewritten versions of my paragraph. I can navigate between rewrites and choose the one I want.
When I open Adjust Tone, I’m presented with a set of options such as Neutral, Professional, Casual, Imaginative, and Concise. I’ll pick Concise, Tab to Regenerate, and press Enter.
PAUSE FOR NARRATOR. New rewrites generated.
Or, I can simply type the kind of change I want in the Copilot chat window. For example, “make the language in this paragraph more formal”. This is enormously useful in business writing. Imagine you’ve drafted a customer email that feels a bit too heavy, or you need to adapt internal commentary into something fit for a board paper. Auto Rewrite with tone control gives you a fast, screen-reader-friendly path to that.
When I press ALT+C then focus will move to Copilot button, user hit enter and focus moves to the Copilot pane. I can give prompt to rewrite or adjust the tone or structure the selected text.
Edit with Copilot (Allow Editing)
Now we have come to the most significant evolution of Copilot in Word, which has tremendous potential for increasing productivity for screen reader users.
Copilot can take actions directly in your Word documents, helping you move from first draft to final output faster, while you stay in control.
The difference from regular Copilot or chat only mode is that Edit with Copilot doesn’t just produce text in a chat pane for you to copy or accept. It directly performs multi-step edits on the document itself. You give it a high-level goal, and it carries out the work, applying styles, restructuring sections, updating tables, and so on.
Microsoft’s own example, which I’ll quote because it’s illustrative, is:
“Help me update this monthly report for September. Update the data table with the latest numbers from the /Sept Data Pull email.”
Edit with Copilot will then read the email you’ve referenced, locate the table in your document, and update the cells, all without you having to do the copying and pasting yourself.
You may wish to enable Track Changes before you invoke Edit with Copilot. With Track Changes on, every edit Copilot makes is logged as a tracked change, which means you can review them with the standard Word screen reader workflow. To turn on Track Changes, press Control Shift E. To accept the next change, press Alt R, A, 2. To reject the next change, press Alt R, J. To accept all, Alt R, A, 2, L. To reject all, Alt R, J, L. These are the same shortcuts you’ve used for years to review human edits, and they apply equally well to Copilot’s edits.
For shared documents, Copilot adds an extra safeguard. Edit with Copilot will always show a preview of its suggested changes in chat first. You must review and confirm these changes before anything is applied to the document. This prevents accidental sharing of sensitive or unintended content with collaborators. For a screen reader user, that preview-first behavior is genuinely valuable. You read the proposed changes in the chat, then you decide whether to apply them.
Summarizing a document
Let’s say a colleague has just sent me a forty-page strategy document and asked for my views before a meeting in an hour. This is where summarization earns its place.
There are two ways to get a summary. The first is to ask Copilot directly through the chat pane.
I press Alt+C and hit enter to open the Copilot pane.
PAUSE FOR NARRATOR. Copilot pane. Please select the “Chat only” mode before giving the prompt.
In the prompt edit box I type:
“Summarize this document in ten bullet points. Focus on the key strategic recommendations, the proposed budget, and the implementation timeline.”
I press Enter.
PAUSE FOR NARRATOR. Summary generated.
The summary appears in the chat region. Crucially, when Copilot generates summaries or answers questions about the document, it includes references with citations linking back to the source paragraphs. With Narrator I can navigate the chat messages list, find the citation, and activate it to jump straight to the cited paragraph in the document. That feature is essential for verification. Always check the source before quoting a summary in something important.
I can also press ALT+C press up arrow key to hear the suggestions and select if we have one to summarize the document. Hit enter on the summarize suggestions, this will open the chat pane and generate the summary.
And the second method is via Backstage view, you can activate the File menu, navigate to the file for which you want to generate a summary. Select the “Summarize file, Button,” and Copilot will start generating a summary of the document. Once generation is complete then screen readers will start reading the summary. Users can hit enter to access the summary and read line by or word by word etc. User can open the document if want to make any edits using “open document button or Copy the summary using Copy or Copy with link button.
Asking questions about a document
Beyond summarization, Copilot Chat in Word can answer specific questions about the document you have opened. This is where it stops being a writing assistant and starts being a research assistant.
I have an annual report open. I press Alt+C to open the Copilot pane.
PAUSE FOR NARRATOR. Copilot pane.
In the prompt edit, I type: “What does this report say about total revenue in the past financial year, and how does it compare to the prior year’s revenue?”
I press Enter.
PAUSE FOR NARRATOR. Response generated.
Copilot returns a focused answer drawn from the document, with citations. I can ask follow-ups in the same chat: “What were the specific programs mentioned that supported these results?” The chat persists, so I can drill in iteratively.
A few useful prompts to try in your own documents:
- “Is there a clear call to action in this document, and is it strong enough?”
- “What are the main risks identified, and on which pages?”
- “List every commitment made by the author and the corresponding deadlines.”
- “Where does this document contradict itself or use inconsistent terminology?”
Copilot Chat history is automatically saved, so you can revisit past conversations and pick up where you left off.
Generating images and banners
Copilot in Word can also generate images, using Microsoft Designer’s Image Creator, which is powered by an advanced DALL-E 3 model.
I press Alt+C, open the pane, and in the prompt box I type:
“Create a photorealistic banner of a modern financial services office at sunrise, with diverse team members collaborating around a glass conference table.”
Press Enter.
PAUSE FOR NARRATOR. Image generated.
Reviewing an AI-generated image is of course inherently a visual task. If you have access to Narrator’s image description on a Copilot+ PC, you can press Narrator key plus Control plus D to get a generated description of the focused image, which gives you something to work with. You may also use a third-party AI tool to describe the image back to you. Beyond that, I recommend asking a sighted colleague to verify, particularly for anything customer-facing. The model is good, but it is not infallible, and brand-sensitive imagery deserves human review.
To insert the image into the document, navigate the chat region to find the generated image, and press the plus button or the Insert button next to it.
A useful tip. If you prefix your prompt with “Create a brand image of,” and your organization’s administrator has set up brand kits, Copilot will draw from your approved corporate imagery. You can also ask for a stock image instead of a generated image: “Add a stock image of a team meeting.” That route uses the licensed Microsoft 365 stock library and tends to be more predictable.
Generating content from emails and meetings
For business users, Copilot’s ability to draw on your Outlook emails and Teams meetings is genuinely powerful. For example, you might write,
“Based on /Email thread with Sam Johnson about Q4 budget, prepare a one-page brief for tomorrow’s finance review. Include the open questions, the points where we agreed, and the points where we still differ.”
This prompt uses the slash command to reference Microsoft Graph items. Copilot pulls the content, synthesizes it, and produces a draft I can refine inside Word.
If you’ve never tried this, I encourage you to start tomorrow. The hour you save after a long meeting more than justifies the license cost on its own.
Copilot Pages and Notebooks, the connective tissue
Although Copilot Pages and Copilot Notebooks live primarily inside the Microsoft 365 Copilot app at microsoft365.com, they connect to Word in important ways.
Copilot Pages is a dynamic, persistent canvas in Copilot Chat designed for AI-powered group collaboration. The workflow is: you have a productive conversation with Copilot Chat, you find an answer or draft you want to keep working on, and you turn that response into a Page. Pages support real-time co-editing, both with humans and with Copilot. You can now save Page content directly to a Word document with the press of a button, which closes the loop nicely.
To create a Page from a Copilot response, in the chat ask Copilot something durable like “Create a one-page project brief for an accessibility audit of our customer portal.” When Copilot responds, look for the Create page button below the response, or simply ask Copilot, “Put that into a Page.” From there you can edit the Page, share it with colleagues, and ultimately export it to Word for finalizing.
Copilot Notebooks is the cousin to Pages, designed for focused, ongoing tasks. You bring together chats, files, links, and Pages into one workspace, and Copilot can answer questions grounded in everything in the notebook. For business users with multi-month engagements or research projects, Notebooks is genuinely worth setting up.
Working effectively with Copilot, lessons learned
Allow me to share some hard-earned lessons from using Copilot in Word as a screen reader user.
First, prompt specifically and structurally. The difference between “summarize this” and “summarize this in seven bullet points, focused on financial commitments and dates, in the order they appear” is enormous. The more structure you give, the more navigable the response is for a screen reader user.
Second, always verify. For anything you put your name to, click through the citations and confirm.
Third, use Track Changes generously, especially with Edit with Copilot. It transforms what could be an opaque, all-or-nothing AI rewrite into a reviewable, tractable set of decisions.
Fourth, build a personal prompt library. Save the prompts that work for you using the Prompt Gallery’s save feature, name them clearly, and share the genuinely useful ones with your team.
A final word
We’ve covered a lot of ground. We’ve drafted, rewritten, summarized, translated, visualized, coached, referenced, chatted, and now we have agentic editing that can perform multi-step changes in the document while we listen along.
For blind professionals, Copilot is genuinely one of the most consequential productivity changes of our lifetime. It accelerates the parts of writing that are mechanical, freeing us to do the parts that are strategic. It gives us a credible co-author who is happy to take direction.
It is not perfect. It hallucinates. It occasionally misattributes a citation. It can be uneven from one Word build to the next as Microsoft iterates. The roadmap, including richer preview-and-explain experiences for agentic edits, will close some of those gaps. In the meantime, the workflow I’ve shown you, especially the combination of Edit with Copilot plus Track Changes plus citation verification, gets you most of the way there.
Take the time to make Copilot a habit. Start small. Draft an email summary. Rewrite a paragraph. Summarize the next document a colleague sends you. Build from there. Within a few weeks you’ll wonder how you got along without it.