Prepare your presentation with Copilot for Microsoft 365

Start from an outline

Often the best way to prepare a new presentation is to create an outline of what you plan to cover. For our example we’ll start with Copilot in OneNote.

Start OneNote.
Navigate to the section where you want your presentation outline to live.
Create a new page for your presentation.
Start Copilot from the ribbon.

The Copilot pane will open on the right, waiting for your prompt. You can use natural language, and the more details you can give Copilot the better your results will be.

You could just enter:

Create an outline for a 45-minute presentation on tulips.

But you’ll get better results if you do a couple more things.

Give it context

Start by telling it what role you want Copilot to play in creating this content.

Act as a professional landscaper. Create an outline for a 45-minute presentation on tulips.

By setting that context first, you let the AI know how you want the content framed.

Give it more details

Try adding to your prompt details about what you want it to cover, and who the audience is.

Act as a professional landscaper speaking to a group of interested community members. Create an outline for a 45-minute presentation on tulips. Include sections on the history of the flower, different types, best time to plant, care and feeding.

Now when you run the prompt, you’ll get a more detailed response.

Tip: Don’t be afraid to play around with the specifics – add or remove details, change the order, try different contexts.

If you’re happy (or mostly happy) with the draft outline Copilot has created, select the copy button in the Copilot pane and paste the outline onto your OneNote page.

Review and edit

Now you’ll want to add your own touches. Go through the outline and add or remove things as you see fit.

Tip: OneNote excels as a research tool. Don’t be afraid to add your own notes, copy in content from websites, or add other supporting materials to the page that will be helpful as you prepare your presentation.

Create your handout

When you’re happy with your outline it’s time to create some handouts for the audience. Select your outline in OneNote and copy it to the clipboard. Then open Microsoft Word to a new, blank, document.

Screenshot shows Draft with Copilot in Word.

When Word opens the Copilot dialog should appear. Let’s give it a prompt:

Act as a professional landscaper creating an article for an audience of interested community members. Make it clear, simple, and engaging. Base it off this outline: <paste outline from OneNote>.

Copilot will draft an article for you based on your presentation outline.

Save to OneDrive

Before you spend much time editing your handout, save it to OneDrive. This will make sure your work is saved as you go and it’s key to our final step in preparing the presentation.

Review and edit

Go through the article and make sure that what Copilot added is what you wanted. Edit for voice and tone and make sure any facts it’s added are accurate. Remove anything you don’t want and add anything it missed.

Tip: You can ask Copilot to add more content if you like. Place the cursor where you want that content to be, then click the Copilot button on the ribbon. Tell it what you want.

Add two paragraphs about other plants that look good with tulips.

Add images

Go to the Insert tab, select Pictures, and then Online Pictures. Search for “Tulips” and select one or more nice images to make your article more appealing.

Create the slide deck

Now it’s time to let Copilot in PowerPoint get to work.

Open PowerPoint to a new blank deck.
Select Copilot from the ribbon.
In the prompt box type Create presentation from file.
Copy the URL of the document you'd like to use by opening the share tray in Word and clicking Copy Link
Paste the URL to your Word document into Copilot in PowerPoint.

Copilot in PowerPoint will build a draft presentation based on your Word document, complete with images and speaker notes.

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Review and edit

As always, it’s important that you review the draft Copilot has created. Add any additional slides or information you want, remove any that you don’t. Add your own expertise where appropriate.

If you want to change any of the images Copilot has added just right-click the image and select Change picture.

Tip: Practice with Speaker Coach

When you’re happy with the presentation you might want to practice it once or twice with Speaker Coach before the big day. For more information see Rehearse your slide show with Speaker Coach.