Exercise 1, Task 3: Use Copilot in PowerPoint to create an executive presentation

In the prior task, you used Copilot in Word to create the Heating System Comparison report, which identified the differences between boiler and furnace heating systems. You now want to create a PowerPoint presentation based on this report that you can present to Adatum’s senior leadership team. Your goal is to get them up to speed on the two types of heating systems, including the pros and cons of each, before you contact a Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) company and formally start this project.

Using Copilot in PowerPoint

PowerPoint provides two ways to use Copilot: standard Copilot prompts for quickly generating slide content or summaries, and Edit with Copilot in the Copilot pane for making direct, in‑place edits to slides, layouts, and presentation structure.

  • You should use Copilot’s standard prompts in PowerPoint when you want to draft slides quickly, summarize content, or generate speaker notes without changing the structure of the deck. When using the Copilot pane, if you enter a prompt without selecting Edit with Copilot, Copilot responds in a chat‑style mode that generates suggestions or content separately, rather than making direct, in‑place changes to the presentation.

  • You should use Edit with Copilot when you want Copilot to work directly in the presentation—such as reorganizing slides, refining slide text, improving layouts, or making iterative edits across multiple slides. Edit with Copilot is optimized for in‑place presentation work, so it understands slide structure and can apply changes directly to the deck, rather than just suggesting content in a separate response.

In summary, use chat‑style Copilot for thinking and generating ideas; use Edit with Copilot for hands‑on editing inside the file. Copilot typically previews slide or layout changes and, once you confirm, it applies those changes directly to the slide deck rather than expecting the user to explicitly apply them through copy and paste.

Perform the following steps to complete this task:

  1. In your Microsoft Edge browser, go to the Microsoft 365 home page, select Apps in the navigation pane, and then select PowerPoint from the Apps menu.

  2. In PowerPoint for the web, create a blank presentation.

  3. Select the Home tab if the Home tab ribbon doesn’t appear. Then select Copilot at the end of the Home tab ribbon.

  4. In the Copilot pane, select the plus (+) sign in the prompt field and then select Add work content in the drop-down menu. Attach the Heating System Comparison report that you stored in your OneDrive account in the prior task.

  5. Verify the Edit with Copilot icon appears next to the plus (+) sign in the prompt field. If you don’t see it, select the plus sign and then select Edit with Copilot in the drop-down menu. The icon should now appear in the prompt field.

  6. In the Copilot prompt, ask Copilot to generate an executive leadership presentation based on the attached file.

  7. If Copilot asks a series of questions related to the presentation, select the answers that you want it to apply. Select the Confirm button once you finish answering the questions. It might also ask a second series of questions, one of which might be to select a slide template. Keep in mind that if you don’t select a template, Copilot simply presents text on plain white slides. Again, select the answers that you want it to apply, or select Skip all if you want Copilot to use its best judgment.

  8. Copilot in PowerPoint uses this information to generate a list of slides, which might take a few minutes.

  9. During our testing, we experienced different results with regard to slide generation. Copilot sometimes generated the slides automatically, with no further confirmation needed. Other times, it provided an outline of the slides in the Copilot chat pane, and it suggested several options as to how it could proceed. If you experience the latter scenario, tell it to proceed with the outline. In either case, it typically took several minutes for Copilot to generate the slides.

  10. If Copilot suggests various options that it can apply, feel free to accept any that you wish. When you’re happy with the suggested presentation, tell Copilot to proceed with slide generation.

  11. You now want to see whether Copilot can add an image to a slide. Find a slide without an image. Select the slide, and then in the Copilot pane, ask Copilot to generate an image related to the contents of that slide number and then add the image to the slide.

  12. It might take a minute or two, but eventually Copilot should generate an image and add it to the slide.

  13. You also notice that there isn’t any content in the presentation related to the expected lifespan for each type of heating system. Ask Copilot to research the expected lifespan of boiler heating systems versus furnace heating systems and then add it to a new slide. Before you submit this prompt, select in the slide list where you want the new slide to appear. A red line should appear in the slide list where Copilot should add the new slide.

  14. Verify that Copilot added the slide at the selected location. If it didn’t, then drag and drop the slide to the proper location in the list of slides.

  15. You notice that there isn’t a slide at the end of the presentation for a Question and Answer (Q&A) session. Ask Copilot to add a Question and Answer (Q&A) slide after the final slide in the presentation.

  16. Verify that Copilot added the slide at the end of the deck. If it didn’t, then drag and drop the slide to the proper location.